Weathering The Storm
by unlikelyRLshipper
Summary: D/L. As promised, another multi-chapter fic about the return of Shane Casey, this one dealing directly with what happened in the finale. For that reason, SPOILER ALERT for 6.23 Vacation Getaway is in full force here!
1. Chapter 1

**OK, so when I finished **_**Aftermath**_**, the last thing I wanted to be doing was starting another multi-chapter fic so soon after – my brain was a bit frazzled! And then the darn finale aired, and a whole other story started to take shape – slowly and kicking and screaming at times – until I ended up spending the entire month of June working on it. Now, I know everyone and their momma has come up with their own version of what happened after the screen went black, but I decided to add my own two cents in too. I've gone in a different direction than **_**Aftermath**_** with the, uhh, aftermath of what happened, and I'm not too sure about it yet, but I'll let you all be the judge of that.**

**A little additional information on this story, in the form of good news, and less-good news: First off, the good news: This entire story is already finished, so there should be no ridiculous month-long gaps in updates because of school or while I try to come up with what comes next! Now, the less-good news: This entire story is already finished…on 53 sheets of lined paper! (Call me old-fashioned, but I write stuff out first before typing and editing, hence why sometimes it takes longer for updates.) Barring any RL stuff getting in the way, I hope to have a new chapter ready for everyone to read every couple of days *fingers crossed***

**I'm gonna shut up now. Enjoy!**

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The minute Flack got off the phone with the 911 dispatcher, he bolted straight for the stairs up to the lab, taking them as quickly as his long legs could handle. He burst onto the lab floor panting and wheezing, and scared a couple of the newer lab techs as he ran down the hallway, straight to Mac's office, where the latter was currently chatting with Stella. Their conversation immediately stopped the minute Flack burst through the door, and both CSIs were extremely unnerved by the ashen look on Flack's face.

"Don, what is it?" Mac asked quickly.

"I just got patched into a dispatch call – they were reporting a gunshot being heard from the apartment next door." Flack paused to gasp for another breath, and in that moment, Mac knew what was coming next out of Flack's mouth.

"The gunshot came from Danny and Lindsay's place."

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**Dear readers,**

**As I am anticipating an angry mob with torches and pitchforks because I was mean and ended this ridiculously short chapter with a dastardly cliffhanger, I am going into hiding for the next 24 hours. The next chapter is almost ready to go (and will be up before the 24 hour period expires), but I wanted to create a bit of suspense (like you really need anymore after *fade to black, then single gunshot* *cue end credits*). I just hope that I peaked enough interest for the next chapter.**

**Affectionately yours,**

**unlikelyRLshipper**

***bolts for safety***


	2. Chapter 2

***peaks out from under blankie* Phew, I managed to escape the threats of harm, at least for now! The major reason why that first chapter was so short was because I modelled it like an opening teaser for the show, so you have that short little scene and then Boom! Right to the title sequence. I hope it worked.**

**Anywho, thank you to all of you who reviewed that tease I called a first chapter, and thanks to everyone who put this story on their alerts. It really means a lot to me!**

**Now to chapter 2: it's time for Mac, Stella and Flack to head over to Danny and Lindsay's place…but just what will they find?**

**Enjoy!**

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The second Flack finished speaking, Stella ran out of Mac's office, on her way to her own office to grab her gun. Mac didn't waste any time either, re-holstering his weapon and grabbing his jacket off the back of his chair.

"Do you know anymore than that?" Mac asked as he hurried out of his office, Flack right on his heels.

"No. They've already sent two vehicles to the scene and advised them of possible NYPD officer involvement."

Stella rejoined them at the elevator, and Mac quickly told her that they knew nothing more about the situation, at least officially. Unofficially, all three knew that Shane Casey was involved.

Finally in the garage after a seemingly never-ending elevator ride, Flack ran to his own sedan and sped off for his friends' home, with Mac and Stella following closely behind in an Avalanche. Stella tried calling both Lindsay's and Danny's cell phones and their home phone, but there was no answer at any of the lines. Mac glanced over at her, aware of what she was doing, and he saw her shake her head in defeat. He reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her that it could mean anything, but Mac himself wasn't completely convinced.

Mac pulled the truck in directly behind Flack and the two cruisers, and together all three hurried up the stairs to Danny and Lindsay's fourth floor home. On the correct floor, they saw the uniform posted outside the door. He glanced over at the trio, recognizing them all automatically, and he turned to them and began to fill them in on what he knew.

"We've got one male DB, it's Shane Casey. One bullet to the forehead. Both Detectives Messer were in the living room waiting for us when we arrived. We found Casey in the daughter's room already dead. The weapon used was waiting for us on the dining room table, as well as the little girl's shirt – Danny told us that she wouldn't stop touching the blood, so he took it off her."

All three were immediately relieved to hear that Shane Casey was finally (and truly) dead and that Danny, Lindsay, and Lucy were seemingly OK, but everything else that was said, particularly because it involved Lucy, disturbed them immensely.

The uniform opened Danny and Lindsay's door and lifted the crime scene tape for them, and upon entering, everything seemed normal at first. Then they caught sight of the Messer family.

The playpen was set up next to the couch, and they could see Lucy sleeping in it, a blanket thrown over her to keep her from getting too cold without her shirt on. Danny was sat right next to her on the couch, his hand gripping the edge of the playpen for dear life. Across the room on one of their dining room chairs was Lindsay, a blank expression on her face. Hearing movement in the room, Lindsay looked up, and after seeing that it was her co-workers and friends, she went back to staring at the wall in front of her. Danny saw Lindsay look up and he turned towards the door, finally seeing everyone for the first time.

"Are you all OK?" Mac asked, his voice full of concern.

"Lindsay and I are fine, and Lucy's only got a small bump on her head from hitting the floor when Casey went down," Danny answered as he glanced over at Lindsay, hoping that seeing Mac, Stella and Flack would get her to talk more, or even react more than she had been since it all had happened.

Mac let out an audible sigh of relief. "OK, we need to get you guys out of here and back to the station. Stella, you take Danny, Lindsay and Lucy back in the Avalanche, I'll wait here with Flack until they send out another team of CSIs to process the scene."

Danny stood up suddenly, his hand still hovering near the playpen. "Mac, what are we gonna do for clothes and for Lucy's stuff?"

"Our suitcases: they're still packed." Lindsay unexpectedly chimed in, no emotion in her voice, and quick and succinct in her words.

"Sure kiddo. Mac, come help me for a second?" Stella caught Mac's eye and inclined her head ever so slightly, indicating that she wanted to talk to him in private. He wordlessly followed her towards the bedrooms, and they stepped into Danny and Lindsay's, the first one they came to, Stella turning to face Mac properly. "What do you want me to do with them at the station?"

"I'll call Hawkes and get him to meet you in the garage so he can take Lucy up to their office – either he or Adam can watch her. As for Danny and Lindsay, get them into separate rooms, keep them apart and oversee the evidence collection on the both of them. Don't let IAB into the room with either of them until I get back. I'm sitting in on both of these conversation."

"Do you really think it's going to be such a good idea to separate them all?" Stella understood why it needed to be done, but at the same time, her heart went out to them for what they had been through and she was sure that Danny, at least, was going to put up a fight.

"I don't want to separate them anymore than you do, but everything has to go by the book on this one. I don't want to run the risk of being accused of covering something up, which could easily damage one of their careers, or end it."

Stella nodded and started looking around the room for the suitcase, finally seeing it tucked into the corner closest to the door. She grabbed it and exited the room, leaving the suitcase in the hallway as she and Mac headed towards the room that was flooded with light – Lucy's room.

Entering one after the other, they saw Shane Casey's body on the floor, his blood seeping into the light coloured carpet. Glancing at the wall behind him, they could see the bullet hole and the splatter of blood and tiny bits of brain matter that marred the cute daisy decorations on the walls. Not wanting to stay in the room any longer than necessary, Mac noticed the purple flower-covered suitcase shoved against the wall by Lucy's crib, the diaper bag sitting on the floor next to it. He followed Stella out and together they headed back to the living room.

They first noticed that Lucy was now half-awake, resting in Danny's arms as he tried to get her to go back to sleep. Flack was at the front hall closet and he was pulling out the carseat for Lucy. Lindsay was no longer on the other side of the room, but instead of being close to her family, she busied herself by folding the playpen up to take along with them.

Mac put Lucy's suitcase down on the floor and opened it quickly, grabbing the first shirt he saw and handing it to Danny. "Thanks Mac."

Danny tried to put the shirt on Lucy while continuing to hold her in one arm, but his efforts were only waking her up more than she already was. He was about to go put Lucy down on the couch to make the job easier when Lindsay, now finished with the playpen, came over and took the shirt from him, gently pulling it down over Lucy's head and working her arms into the sleeves. Danny glanced over at his wife, hopeful that she was back once more, but when the task was finished, she picked up the playpen in one hand and grabbed the carseat from Flack with the other, ready for the journey.

"If you guys think of anything else you may need from here, call me and I'll bring it back with me," Mac offered, trying to make this whole process as easy as he could.

Danny nodded his head. "Sure Mac, and thanks."

Mac waved off the thanks and watched as Stella, Danny, with Lucy still in his arms, and Lindsay all headed for the door, where the uniform posted outside lifted the crime scene tape so they could pass through. Stella shared one last look of worry with Mac and Flack before following the family to the elevator.

When the door was closed once again by the uniform, Mac ran his hand over his face, glad to no longer have to put up such a brave front for the young couple. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to call Hawkes.

"Mac, what the hell happened here?" Flack asked, hopeful that Mac might have seen something that would give them a clue.

Hitting one of the speed dial numbers, Mac put the phone to his ear. "I don't know, but I going to find out."

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**OK, just for the record: if anyone was worried about me killing off Danny, Lindsay or Lucy, I WOULD NOT do that in a type of fic like this (if ever). That's not really the type of story that I enjoy writing, so you don't have to worry.**

**I bet there are a lot of you who are with Flack right now and want to know just what the hell happened, eh? Well, I can't make any promises for getting an answer in the next chapter, but I hope you'll come back anyways!**

**Until then, thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**First off, I'll ask for a moment of silence: Carmine Giovinazzo is now officially off the market (and there goes my chance at him, and those of millions like me!) *tear***

**OK, back to serious business: Thank you once again for your awesome reviews everyone: I'm really excited that you want to take this ride with me (I just hope I don't disappoint anybody!)**

**This is just a short one, getting the Messers from their home to the station. I hope you like it!**

**Enjoy!**

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The ride back to the station had been a quiet one. After Lindsay secured Lucy's carseat in the back seat of the Avalanche, a task Danny had offered to do if Lindsay took Lucy but Lindsay ignored, Danny placed Lucy in the seat and took a seat behind Stella. He had hoped that Lindsay would take the other spot in the backseat, but when she instead took the front passenger seat, Danny couldn't help but feel a little hurt.

The entire ride, he kept looking over at her, wanting her to glance back and even acknowledge him, but Lindsay kept her eyes forward, glued to the passing scenery out the front windshield. When Stella pulled the truck into the garage, Danny noticed that Adam and Hawkes were anxiously waiting for them. Danny undid his seatbelt and reached over to get Lucy out of her seat, where she had once again fallen into a deep sleep during the car ride. Stepping out of the vehicle, he went to join everyone else at the back of the vehicle.

"Adam, go get the carseat," Hawkes instructed the young man, sharing a look with Stella before he turned his full attention to the couple. "Here Danny, give Lucy to me. Adam and I will watch her for you." Hawkes reached out to take Lucy, but Danny reacted by tightening his hold on her and backing away from his co-worker.

"Why are you two going to be watching her? Where the hell are Lindsay and I going?" Danny was careful to keep his voice somewhat calm, but his eyes showed the anger he felt building up inside. Hawkes made no attempt to answer, instead looking at Stella once more. With a heavy sigh, she answered Danny's questions.

"You and Lindsay are going to be questioned by IAB, so somebody need to stay with Lucy. I'm staying with you, so Hawkes and Adam are taking Lucy to your office and letting her sleep there until you're done."

Danny looked at his three co-workers, unable to believe what he was hearing. "That's not happening. You're not separating us."

Stella stepped forward and placed a hand on Danny's shoulder. "After everything that you guys have been through in the past two days, it's the last thing that anyone wants to do, but this needs to be done by the book. There's no room for error here."

Danny wasn't sure what to do: he knew deep down that Stella was right, but the biggest part of him didn't care about that, he just wanted to keep Lindsay and Lucy with him. He looked to Lindsay, hoping that she would back him up.

Lindsay kept her eyes trained on the ground below her during the entire exchange. She was only vaguely aware that everyone was staring at her, waiting to see her reaction to what was being proposed. Her answer finally came when she looked up and nodded, making eye contact with no one, and handed the playpen off to Adam as he came back to join them with the carseat.

The will to keep fighting left Danny, and he turned his head to place a kiss to Lucy's temple before handing her over to Hawkes. Hawkes made sure she was securely on his shoulder before he reached down to grab the handle of Lucy's suitcase and her diaper bag. "She'll be OK with us, don't worry. Just focus on what you need to do now."

Neither Danny nor Lindsay reacted to what Hawkes said, so with one last glance at Stella, he headed for the elevator, Adam following closely behind. Danny watched them in silence until the elevator doors closed, and then he turned back towards the truck. Stella watched him with sad eyes while Lindsay once again stared at the ground, keeping her hand on the handle of their suitcase.

"Ready?" Stella asked. Danny nodded without thinking and Lindsay led the way to the elevator, followed by Stella with Danny bringing up the rear.

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Stepping off the elevator and beginning to walk through the station, Danny noticed the hush that followed them as people saw them. He tried not to let the stares get to him, but he felt every single pair of eyes fall on them, some with pity, others with confusion. Finally arriving at the interrogation rooms, Danny noticed that there were two CSIs from the other shift, a man and a woman, already waiting for them. Stella nodded at the two in greeting and stopped, waiting for both Danny and Lindsay to catch up and face her.

"You're being put in these two rooms across from one another. Your clothes are needed for evidence, so you'll need to get some clothes…"

"Stella, we know how this works, you don't need to explain it to us," Danny curtly responded, reaching for the handle of the suitcase. His hand lightly brushed against Lindsay's, but she acted like it didn't even happen and just let go of the handle. Danny leaned down and opened the suitcase, grabbing a t-shirt and a pair of jeans for himself, and closed it up once more.

Without another word, he walked into the interrogation room on the left and placed his clothes on the table, remembering that he needed to sit on the side facing the two-way mirror for once. There was no need for the CSI to explain what he needed, so Danny watched as he quietly closed the blinds and took the necessary tools from his kit.

Danny first took off his shirt and placed it into the evidence bag, exposing the bruises he had sustained from his confrontation with Shane Casey in the lighthouse. "The bruises are from the lighthouse fight, not from tonight." He knew that they'd be able to tell that these weren't hours-old bruises, but Danny felt the need to clarify anyways.

The CSI said nothing, taking photos of the injuries he saw as required. Danny removed his pants and stood there as photos were taken of his battered left knee, the one Casey had kicked in an attempt to get the upper hand in the fight.

As the CSI put the camera away, Danny knew he could put his clothes back on. Dressed once more, Danny stood still as his hands were tested for GSR and the CSI scraped under his fingernails for any trace evidence.

With his job now finished, the CSI packed up his kit, took the evidence bag with Danny's clothes and left the room, leaving Danny all alone with his thoughts. He began to pace back and forth in the room, wondering if someone was back there watching him through the mirror. He thought about going over to the glass and banging on it, but having been on the other side many times when a suspect had done that, he knew that nobody would respond. Instead, he moved over to the window closest to the room his wife was in and peaked out, seeing that both CSIs were now finished their tasks and were out in the hallway talking with Stella. He focused on the room where his wife was for a moment, but he saw absolutely no movement from behind the closed blind of Lindsay's room.

Danny put his head and hands up against the blinds and closed his eyes, feeling his frustration not only at being separated from his family but also at the huge wall Lindsay had thrown up around herself. He felt the first few tears begin to roll down his cheeks and he pushed himself away from the window, stumbling over to a chair and collapsing in it. He let his head fall into his hands and started to cry, afraid that Shane Casey had indeed managed to destroy his life without killing a single person he loved.

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**Alright, I think I've danced around the subject enough: in the next chapter, you WILL find out what happened at the apartment, as IAB arrives and begins their interrogation…with Danny.**

**Until then, thanks for reading everybody!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Flying post: I'm off to a wedding today, but I didn't want you guys to have to wait another day for this, so as promised, it's Danny's turn with IAB. Hopefully some of your questions will be answered in this one.**

**Please enjoy.**

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Stella stood in the hallway separating the two interrogation rooms, waiting for the two CSIs to finish with her friends. Detective Terry, the one who had been in with Lindsay, came out first, lugging Lindsay and Danny's suitcase along with her kit and the evidence bag.

"I offered to take it upstairs to their office with me."

Stella smiled quickly and nodded. "Did she say anything in there?"

"No, not a word."

Stella cast her eyes off towards the room where Lindsay was, so worried that her friend was drawing into herself and not knowing how to help her. She was about to pop her head in the door to check up on Lindsay when Detective Rivers stepped out of Danny's room. He noticed the worried look on Stella's face, so he was forthcoming with the information he knew.

"He didn't say anything about what happened, only letting me know that the bruises weren't fresh. Whatever it was, though, must have been pretty bad, he looks like he's barely holding himself together at the moment."

Stella nodded sadly and thanked the two CSIs for their work, watching as they left to head back to the lab. Before Stella could decide what to do next, someone called out her name. Turning to the voice, she watched as Detective Owens from IAB approached her.

"Detective Owens," she said in acknowledgment.

"What can you tell me about what happened tonight?"

"Not much. Detectives Messer were both at home finishing up the week of vacation they had. None of the details are known – neither of them as talking about it at the moment. The first on the scene found Shane Casey dead, one bullet to the head, on the floor of their daughter's room. The little girl must have been near Casey when he was shot because her shirt had his blood on it. The weapon that killed Casey was on the dining room table with the daughter's shirt, but no one knows who shot him." Stella tried to suppress the shudder while talking about Lucy being near Shane Casey, but she really couldn't control it.

Owens didn't seem to notice though, as he shook his head. "Alright, I guess I'll start questioning them." He started to move towards the room on the right when Stella stopped him by putting her hand on his arm.

"Detective Taylor does not want anyone talking to them without him present. He's still at their apartment waiting until someone from the other shift can begin processing the scene."

Owens let out a sigh, knowing he did not have to listen to the request of Mac Taylor, but also aware that dismissing it would piss Mac off, and everyone in the NYPD knew that Mac Taylor was about the last person you wanted to make an enemy of. "Fine. Do you have any idea of when Detective Taylor should be returning?"

Stella was about to answer when another voice did it for her. "Right now," Mac said as he approached Stella and Owens, Flack following close behind.

"Detective Taylor, thank you for joining us. I was just about to go question your two detectives."

"Not a problem. Could you please wait for a minute longer while I confer with my colleagues?" Owens seemed irritated, but he waved at Mac, indicating for him to go ahead. Stella stepped away from Owens and the three closed ranks and spoke in hushed tones.

"Were you able to find out anything more about what happened?" Mac asked hopefully.

"No, they've not said anything about what happened. Lindsay hasn't said anything at all since she left the apartment, and Danny raised a stink about being separated from his family. How about you, were you able to learn anymore at the apartment?"

"Not much. The door wasn't forced or picked, so it seems that Casey came in through the fire escape. They're still processing, but when we left, Casey's body was on the way to the morgue."

"What do you want us to do now Mac?" Flack asked, looking directly at the older man.

"We're not going to involve ourselves in the official investigation, but that's not going to stop is from looking into what happened ourselves. You two go listen in on these conversations from the other side of the glass and then we'll try and put together what happened."

After both Flack and Stella nodded, Mac turned away from them and back to Owens. "Alright Owens, you can start your questioning now with Danny."

"Which room is he in?"

"The one on the left," Stella supplied for Mac. Owens nodded and started for the door on the left, but paused when he saw Mac head for the door on the right. "Now what?"

Mac chose not to respond to Owens, instead knocking on the door before him softly. He opened it after waiting a few seconds and saw Lindsay sitting at the table, the same blank expression on her face. She turned and looked at Mac, but said nothing.

"IAB is here to talk to you and Danny. Is it OK if Danny goes first?"

Lindsay shook her head in agreement and looked away from Mac once again. As he closed the door, he began to think that talking to Lindsay would not be an easy task, but he pushed that thought aside to turn his attention back to the task at hand.

Owens knocked on the door to Danny's room and quickly opened it, seeing Danny stand as the door opened. "Detective Messer, I'm Detective Owens from IAB. I assume you won't mind if Detective Taylor sits in on our conversation?"

"I've already done the 'just me and IAB' conversation and it didn't turn out so good for me last time, so I'll go with having Mac with me this time."

Mac looked over at Danny, who kept his focus on Owens, and he saw once again just how much Danny had grown both as a criminalist and as a man over the past several years.

Owens took the seat across the table from Danny, while Mac stood at the back of the room. Owens pulled out a notepad and motioned for Danny to retake his seat. "So, I understand that you and your wife are currently on a week's worth of vacation, and you were taking it in Long Island until Shane Casey showed up and tried to kill you."

Danny wanted to tell him that that was an understatement, but he just nodded.

"So, you decided to return home and finish out your vacation at home, with Shane Casey still at large and knowing where you live?"

"Just what the hell are you trying to imply here Owens? There was no way that Casey should've survived that fall from the lighthouse, but he did. Maybe we should've known better that to think that he didn't plan on falling off the lighthouse, but there was no way of knowing."

"Danny, nobody is blaming you for anything," Mac stepped forward as he spoke, trying to catch the attention of Owens to get him to back off.

Owens gave a sideways glance to Mac, informing him of just who was in charge here. Instead of challenging the IAB detective, Mac stepped back towards the wall and let Owens proceed. "I'm not implying anything Detective Messer, I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this. So your family was at home tonight. What happened next?"

Danny took a deep breath before launching into his story. "I was sleeping when I heard Lucy, our daughter, start to cry…"

_Startled awake by Lucy's cries, Danny started to get up to go comfort her. Glancing back to ensure that Lindsay was still asleep, he gently got off the bed and padded down the hallway to Lucy's room. Wiping his forearm over his eyes, he hoped to wake himself up more._

"_Here I come baby, here I come."_

_He reached for the lightswitch and flipped it up, expecting to find Lucy in her crib, standing at the rail waiting to be picked up and comforted. Instead, he found Lucy on the right hip of Shane Casey, who was softly whistling at her in an attempt to quiet her._

"_Hello," Casey said casually as his left hand came up to point a gun at Danny. Danny, still trying to process what the hell was going on, raised his hands and took a small step back from the doorway, not wanting to antagonize Casey._

_Casey started to chuckle a little and Lucy renewed her fussing, not taking to the stranger that was currently holding her. Danny's mind finally caught up to what was going on and he took another half-step back into the hallway._

"_Oh my God." They were the only words that he could manage to get past his lips._

"_What's wrong Danny? You think that you're seeing a ghost? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm real."_

"_How the hell did you survive that fall?"_

"_That's not important. What is, though, is that we have some unfinished business. I told you I wanted to kill the messenger, and I plan on finishing the job this time."_

"_OK, you can do that, just let my daughter and wife go."_

"_No, I can't do that Danny."_

"_You said yesterday that they didn't have anything to do with this." Danny felt the panic beginning to get out of control within him. He might not be able to save himself, but he was going to try his damnedest to save Lindsay and Lucy._

"_That was yesterday. Today, I don't want any funny tricks, so I think I'll keep hold on this little one to keep you in line." Casey could see clearly on Danny's face that he had the upper hand this time. "By the way, you never did tell me what her name was."_

_Danny's heart stopped beating momentarily and his blood ran cold. "And I don't plan on telling you now."_

"_You're not really in a position to be defying me, now are you?" Casey asked as he brought the gun back from Danny and started to turn it on Lucy. Danny took two firm steps into Lucy's room, effectively re-drawing Casey's attention, and the gun, back on him._

"_Her name's Lydia."_

_It was a bit of a foolish risk to take, but Danny couldn't bear to tell Casey his daughter's real name. Casey was determined to take so much away from Danny, but Danny couldn't let him have anything that involved the two most important people in his life._

"_Well hello Lydia. My name is Shane, and me and your daddy are good friends. You're a very good little girl, you look very much like your daddy." Shane cooed at the little girl, and Danny could feel the bile rising in the back of his throat. He wanted nothing more than to strangle the bastard at the moment, but he knew that he'd have to play this right if there was any chance for Lindsay and Lucy to make it out of this alive._

_From the moment that Danny's brain had finally comprehended that Shane Casey was in his home and holding his daughter while pointing a gun at him, Danny had slowly come to realize that either he or Casey was not walking away from this alive. Since he did not have a weapon and had no way of getting one without jeopardizing Lucy, Danny didn't see how he could be the one to survive this._

_Lucy looked from Casey over to her father and turned her head sideways, what she always did when she was confused. It was normally a look that brought a wide smile to Danny's face, but there was no way for him to smile at the moment. "It's OK sweetie, Shane and Daddy are friends. It's just been a long time since we've seen each other."_

_Lucy obviously didn't recognize Shane from the previous day, but then Danny had made a point of keeping her turned away from him. Danny prayed to God that Lucy would stay silent and not let slip that he'd lied, and he was thankful when she choose not to speak, instead continuing to look back and forth between her daddy and the man who was holding her._

"_You want me dead Casey, then do it. You've got me in a vulnerable position, I've got no way to fight back without possibly hurting my daughter in the process. You win. I just have one last request." Danny was trying to stay as calm as possible for Lucy's sake, but it was hard to admit that he knew he was a dead man._

_Casey's sick smile grew, and Danny could see that he was intrigued. "And what would that be?"_

"_That you cover her eyes before you shoot me. I don't want her seeing that, even if she can't understand what it is." Danny could hardly believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. There was a part of him that was screaming for him not to give up, but his rational side had taken over, and it was determined to spare Lucy and Lindsay as much pain as possible in his death._

_Casey thought for a moment before replying. "You know what Danny, I'll do that for you, if for nothing else than to show you that I meant that I have nothing against your wife and daughter. You may not believe me now, seeing what's before you, but they're just my means to your end."_

_Casey started to shift his arm around Lucy's body so he could cover her eyes with his hand, but it wouldn't work. Looking around the room, he saw a hat on the corner of the change table, so he reached out for it, never taking his eyes off Danny, expecting him to try something while Casey's attention was divided. Instead, Danny continued to stand there like a statue, not moving a muscle. Casey started chuckling as he put the hat on Lucy's head, pulling it down over her eyes. She started fussing and tried to get the hat off, but Shane kept it in place._

"_It's OK sweetheart. Shane's just trying to show you a new game, but you gotta keep the hat on, OK?" Danny saw the hat move up and down, so he guessed that Lucy was nodding her head in understanding._

"_You know Danny, it's almost a shame that you need to die, because you're a really good father. Very calming, even when you know that you're never gonna see her again. But, I have no intention of abandoning my plan. Now, say goodbye to your daughter Danny."_

"_Bye-bye sweetie. You be good for Mommy. I love you…with all my heart." Danny choked out as the full weight of what was happening to him set upon him at last._

_He had never been a guy who liked to think about regrets: sure he had them, but he always tried to make up for them. At the moment, however, he knew he would go the grave with two huge regrets that he would never have to chance to make up for._

_The first was that Lucy would grow up not being able to remember a thing about him. The second was that he was breaking the promise he'd made to Lindsay only hours earlier. He only hoped that she'd forgive him and know that he'd done all he could to protect her and Lucy from all of this._

_Looking one last time at Lucy and seeing that Casey was in fact keeping the hat over her eyes, despite the fact that her attempts to get it off her head had been renewed by Danny's last words to her, Danny locked eyes with Shane Casey and nodded his head, letting him know that he was ready._

"_I'll see you in hell Danny."_

"_I hope not, you bastard." The last bit of defiance Danny had came out there, and he could see that he hadn't offended Casey, just amused him even more._

"_Goodbye Danny Messer."_

_Danny closed his eyes and waited for the hot searing pain to once again rip through his body. He decided to focus on a happier moment for his last thought, one from yesterday when he sat watching Lucy and Lindsay play in the sand on the beach before Lindsay caught his eye and smiled so brightly at him and then turned her attention back to Lucy._

_That image was still in his mind when he heard a single gunshot sound within the small room. He flinched a bit and waited for the pain to come, but it never did. Instead, he heard Lucy begin to scream and the sound of a thud on the floor. Tearing his eyes open, he saw that Shane Casey was no longer standing before him, but sprawled out on the floor, a blood pool blossoming under his body, its source the hole in the centre of his forehead._

_Lucy's wail sounded again and Danny shook out of his trance and rushed over to Lucy, picking her up and immediately trying to calm her down, taking the hat off her had and forcing her face down into his chest, using his body to shield her from the awful sight. Danny couldn't understand what had happened, and then a voice spoke from the hallway._

"_Is he dead?"_

_Danny whipped around quickly and saw Lindsay standing in the hallway, her service revolver still trained on Shane Casey, her finger still very close to the trigger. Danny had so many questions, but he knew what he needed to do first._

_Awkwardly approaching Casey half facing him and half turned away, still trying to protect Lucy, he reached down and felt for a pulse on his neck. He stayed there for a while, wanting to make sure that he was right. Getting up, he turned to fully face Lindsay, putting Shane Casey completely behind him._

"_He's dead."_

_Lindsay reacted by nodding and lowering her gun, putting the safety back on. "Is Lucy OK?" Her tone was completely devoid of emotion, and it freaked Danny out a little bit. He pulled Lucy away from his body a bit and started to check her over. Seeing a red mark on the side of her forehead, he lightly touched it, causing Lucy's continued whimpers to turn back into full-blown wails. Immediately, he pulled her back into his chest, putting a kiss right next to the mark._

"_Shh, I'm sorry sweetie. It's OK, you're OK. It's just a little bump. Daddy kissed it better." Lucy's tears subsided once again, giving Danny the chance to answer. "She's only got a bump on her head, the blood must be his," Danny said, pointing to the splotches of blood that covered Lucy's neck and shirt._

"_Are you OK?" Still, Lindsay's voice sounded flat and emotionless._

"_Yeah."_

_Lindsay nodded once more and made no attempt to come into the room. Instead, she started walking towards the living room. Danny, unsure of what was happening, followed her out. He saw her put the gun on their dining room table before she turned back towards them. Danny was about to say something to her when she beat him to it. "Take the shirt off her, she keeps touching the blood."_

_Danny looked down and noticed that Lucy kept poking at the sticky blood on her shirt, so he walked over to the kitchen bar and sat Lucy on the counter, carefully removing her shirt. Lindsay walked around him and quickly wet a kitchen towel, putting it on the counter next to Lucy and picking up the shirt to place it next to her gun._

_Danny began to gently wipe the blood off Lucy's neck, but she started to fight him off. Thinking quickly, he started to tickle her under the chin to distract her, and by lowering her chin to get him to stop, she unknowingly made it easier for him to wipe the blood off. With that done, he had just enough time to get the blood off her finger before she got too fussy. Putting the towel back on the counter, he leaned forward and blew a raspberry on her belly, and though he didn't get the normal fit of giggles, the one little giggle that escaped her lips was music to his ears. He wasn't sure that he'd ever heard a sweeter sound._

_He picked her up and placed her on his shoulder and he felt her settle in there. He turned back towards the living room and noticed that the playpen that was normally in the corner was now pulled up right next to the couch, and Lindsay, who he'd expected to find on the couch, was instead across the room, sat on one of their dining room chairs._

"_I hear sirens," Danny said as he noticed the sound for the first time, though they sounded like they were only a few blocks away. Lindsay only nodded in response. Knowing that they were on their way to their apartment, Danny walked over to the door, unlocking and opening it. He could feel Lucy's breathes evening out on his neck, signalling that she was falling back to sleep, so he didn't want the cops waking her up again by busting in the door. She'd already had enough excitement to last her a long time – they all had._

_He walked over to the couch and gently moved Lucy from his shoulder to the playpen, throwing a blanket over her to keep her warm. He sat down on the couch and waited for the cops to arrive._

"…The cops came running down the hall and in the door, identifying themselves. I called out and identified myself, telling them to put their guns away. I told them that we were all fine and didn't need an ambulance, and said that there was a male DB in the farthest bedroom, telling them that it was Shane Casey. I told them about where to find the weapon and I explained about Lucy's shirt, and then I stopped talking and let them do their jobs." Danny finally finished describing what went on and he sat back on the chair, waiting for Owens to start talking.

"Do you have any idea how he got into your apartment?"

"Not for sure. When I opened the door, it wasn't tampered with. We didn't leave Lucy's window open tonight, but when I went in there it was open, and seeing as that's where the fire escape is, that's probably how he got in."

"Alright, that's all for now. If I have anything more to ask, I'll contact Detective Taylor and get him to arrange a meeting for us." Danny shook his head and stood up as Owens walked by and left the room. Finally, Danny turned his attention to Mac and Mac noticed for the first time that it looked as though Danny had been crying before they came in the room.

"Go upstairs and go be with Lucy. When he's done with Lindsay, I'll send her right up too." Mac grabbed Danny's shoulder and squeezed it firmly. After letting go, he watched as Danny left the room and headed towards the stairs back up to the lab. Owens looked back at Mac expectantly. "Are you coming or not?"

Mac stepped out of the room, biting back his annoyance, and stood behind Owens as he knocked on the door across the hall and opened it, both men walking through before Mac closed the door again.

* * *

Danny quickly climbed the stairs to the lab, desperate to get up to his office and see Lucy again. Exiting the stairwell in to the hallway closest to the office, he noticed that there were no lights on save for the one on Lindsay's desk. As he got closer, he was able to make out Hawkes's form, sitting alone in the room reading a book at Lindsay's desk.

Danny got to the door and pushed it open, seeing that Lucy's playpen was tucked in the corner away from the desks and the couch, trying to keep it as dark as possible for her to sleep. Hawkes looked up and saw that it was Danny, so he closed his book and stood up.

"She's been asleep the entire time. Adam and I were sure that we'd wake her up for all the noise and commotion, but I think she's out for the night again. Is IAB done with you?"

"Yeah, Mac and a Detective Owens are talking to Lindsay right now."

Hawkes nodded his head. "Lie down for a while Danny, even if you don't go to sleep. You need the rest. If you need anything, just call me or Adam, OK?"

"Sure Doc." Danny paused for a moment. "Look, I'm sorry about earlier…"

Hawkes cut him off quickly. "You have nothing to apologize for, Danny." The firm tone and the look of determination on Hawkes's face told Danny to drop it because he wasn't going to win.

"Alright. Thanks for looking after her and keeping her safe. If you see Adam, could you tell him the same?"

"Sure, but we were just doing what you and Lindsay would do for any of us." The two men shared a look of understanding before Hawkes started to leave the office, grabbing Danny's shoulder just as Mac had done before leaving Danny and Lucy alone.

He quietly walked over to the playpen and checked up on her, seeing that she was indeed still asleep, quiet soundly he noticed after everything that had happened tonight. He only wished that he could do the same thing, but he didn't think he'd be able to sleep anymore that night, especially if Lindsay continued to pull away from him.

Danny walked back over to the couch, turning the light off before laying back on the couch. He made sure that he was facing the door, so he would know if anyone was coming in, and he threw his arms over his head and stared up at the ceiling.

He was exhausted, both physically and emotionally, and he knew it was only the beginning of this kind of exhaustion for both him and Lindsay, but he'd take it all and more if it meant he had more time with his wife and daughter. He decided to close his eyes and wait for Lindsay to join him, hopeful that she would finally be willing and able to let him in.

* * *

**Alright, so I think that's one major mystery solved (Lindsay was the one who killed Shane Casey, which is the scenario I really hope the writer's take as well *nudge, nudge*) and another major mystery only deepened (Just what the hell is going on with Lindsay?)**

**Next chapter: it's Lindsay's turn with the lovely (NOT!) Detective Owens of IAB, and just maybe we'll start to see what's going on with her.**

**Thanks for reading everybody!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Huge apologies for the delay on this one: I had hoped to be finished with this chapter a couple of days ago, but real life totally had other things planned for me (post-wedding exhaustion and housework). For those of you who reviewed: responses are the next thing on my to-do list!**

**So I quickly glanced back at all the previous author notes, and I realized that I never mentioned that this story consists of 15 chapters. Therefore, if my math is correct, we are now a third of the way through this – I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing though.**

**Alright, I think I've bored you enough with my A/N – it's time for Lindsay to tell her side of the story.**

**Enjoy?**

* * *

Following Owens into the interrogation room where Lindsay was being held, Mac looked closely at the young woman and he noticed that she still looked like she had when he walked into their apartment hours earlier. Mac started to worry again that she might not be up to answering questions yet. Ignoring Owens, who sat down across from Lindsay and pulled out his notepad, Mac walked over to Lindsay's side and placed his hand in her shoulder.

"Lindsay, are you sure that you're up for answering questions right now? If not, we can do this in the morning." Mac was beyond the point of caring whether Owens was pissed about him interfering, as he was more concerned with her well-being than with the ego of the IAB detective. He heard Owens begin to protest, and Mac was about to tell him off when Lindsay finally spoke.

"I'm OK Mac. I want to answer these questions now and get this over with." Lindsay quickly locked eyes with Mac and he saw her determination to do what she needed to do. Nodding his head and giving her a warm smile, he moved away from the table and once again took up a spot against the wall behind Owens.

"Detective Messer, my name is Detective Owens and I'm with IAB. Nobody is accusing either you or your husband of any wrong-doing, we're just trying to find out what transpired tonight."

"I know."

"Alright, I've already heard your husband's version of the events, so now I'm looking to hear your side of the story. From what your husband said, the two of you were at home finishing out the rest of your vacation time. He said that you were both asleep when he was woken up by your daughter's crying. Did her cries wake you up as well?"

"No, I was woken up by another voice…"

_Lindsay reached out for Danny in her sleep, but she simply got empty air and the cooling bed. She started to force herself awake, deciding to wait up until Danny returned to be to make sure that Lucy was OK. It had been a stressful past couple of days for the entire Messer family, but it was a bit harder on Lucy, who'd been a little out of sorts since Lindsay had rushed the both of them out of the lighthouse. While she couldn't understand what was going on, Lucy was picking up on the heightened emotions of both her parents – and there certainly was a lot to pick up on, especially from Lindsay._

_She had reaching a breaking point when she revealed to Danny that she didn't know how much longer she could take feeling that she was losing him. Though she'd not asked him outright to promise her that he wasn't going anywhere, she'd been inferring as much, so when Danny made that exact promise to her, she was relieved. She'd fallen to sleep not longer after that feeling that everything was going to go back to normal for them._

_Smiling to herself, Lindsay was about to open her eyes when she heard an unfamiliar voice say "Hello." Lifting her head of the pillow and opening her eyes, she stayed quiet, waiting to see if the mystery voice would speak again, or was just the product of her frazzled mind. She wasn't completely sure, given the fog her brain was still experiencing, but she thought it sounded like the voice that had surprised them all at the lighthouse the day before._

_She heard Lucy continue to whimper and Danny faintly say "Oh my God." Not wanting to miss whatever was being said, she grabbed the baby monitor, turned it up a little and held it close to her ear._

"…_seeing a ghost? Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm real."_

_Lindsay covered her mouth to muffle the sharp intake of air as she heard Danny ask Casey how he had survived the fall from the lighthouse._

"_That's not important. What is, though, is that we have some unfinished business. I told you I wanted to kill the messenger, and I plan on finishing the job this time." Lindsay started to reach for the phone next to Danny's side of the bed as her husband bargained for her life and the life of their daughter._

"_That was yesterday. Today, I don't want any funny tricks, so I think I'll keep hold on this little one to keep you in line. By the way, you never did tell me what her name was."_

_Lindsay now totally understood what was going on in Lucy's room. Shane Casey was using Lucy as leverage to get Danny to accept his death. Forgetting about the phone, Lindsay got out of bed and made her to their closet, grabbing a stool to allow her to reach the top shelf._

_Their gun safe used to reside in their front hall closet so they could store their guns away the minute they came home, but after Shane Casey's prints showed up on Danny's grandfather's dog tags, she insisted that it be moved into their bedroom, if for nothing else than her own piece of mind. She and Danny had argued over it, Danny certain that she was overreacting, but he eventually gave in when he saw just how serious she was about it._

_In all the commotion between processing the situation, getting out of bed, moving the stool into the right place, and keying in the safe's code (652009), the next thing she heard over the baby monitor was Danny's voice. "Her name's Lydia."_

_Lindsay stopped moving and waited for someone to speak next, praying that that wasn't Lucy. Danny was taking a huge risk lying to Casey, but she knew that he was just trying to protect Lucy._

"_Well hello Lydia. My name is Shane, and me and your daddy are good friends. You're a very good little girl, you look very much like your daddy." Lindsay was completely fed up with Shane Casey's sick teasing at this point. She grabbed the gun out of the safe and stepped back off the stool. Very carefully, she walked over to the doorway of their room and peaked out quickly, making sure that nobody was in the hall. Though she had no idea where everyone was in the room exactly, at least she knew that they were all in one place._

_As she tried to figure out what to do next, she heard Danny comfort Lucy and try to reassure her that everything was OK. Lindsay quickly formulated a plan in her mind and was about to put the monitor down when Danny said something that she'd never expected to hear pass through his lips._

"_You want me dead Casey, then do it. You've got me in a vulnerable position, I've got no way to fight back without possibly hurting my daughter in the process. You win. I just have one last request." _

"_And what would that be?"_

"_That you cover her eyes before you shoot me. I don't want her seeing that, even if she can't understand what it is." _

_Lindsay felt her heart stop in that moment. Danny knew that he was going to die and he'd accepted that fate, and now he was trying to spare Lucy any further pain with his final act. He'd just promised her only hours earlier that he wasn't going anywhere, and now he was seemingly giving up on keeping that promise. _

_Lindsay had no idea how to react to it all, but there was one thought that did come to her mind: she had to do something…and quick._

_She placed the monitor down on a nearby dresser and took the safety off her service revolver as quickly as possible. Standing still for a second to make sure that nobody heard the sound, she started to walk down the hallway to Lucy's room step by agonizing step. She got to about a foot from the doorway and stopped._

"…_they're just my means to your end." Lindsay took one calming breath before she dared to move her head toward the door, trying to see where everyone was. She forced herself forward, and somehow managed to pick the right moment. Shane was trying to reach for Lucy's hat and keep his eyes trained on Danny, meaning that he didn't notice her out in the hallway hiding in the shadows._

_Pulling back, she went over what she saw in her head: Danny was just inside the doorway, standing right in front of the lightswitch, out of the way of her shooting line. Shane Casey was standing across the room in front of the crib, Lucy sitting on his right hip and the gun in his left hand trained on Danny. She knew that she only had one chance at this and that it would have to be a direct shot to the forehead because if she tried for his heart, she could easily end up hitting Lucy if either Casey or Lucy moved even a little._

_She started taking deep breaths to calm herself and clear her mind of everything, but then Casey's voice filled her head._

"…_Now, say goodbye to your daughter Danny."_

_Lindsay's emotions, every single one of the things that she had been feeling up to that point, suddenly stopped and she felt herself shut down. There was no fear, no anxiety, no nervousness – all had been replaced by empty rationality. _

_She heard Danny do as he was told, but the words didn't register in her mind. The only thing that did register was that she had a job to do and that she had to see it through to its completion, and she found renewed focus in that fact. She heard Casey say "Goodbye Danny Messer" and she knew the time to finally finish this was upon her._

_Taking a step firmly into the doorway, she quickly trained the gun at her target and pulled the trigger once. Her shot was off even before he could move the gun to her and he crashed to the floor, taking Lucy down with him. The little girl cried out, but Lindsay didn't move, keeping the gun trained on Shane Casey. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Danny remain still, only moving when Lucy cried out again. He scooped the little girl up and pulled her to his chest. It was then that Lindsay spoke._

"_Is he dead?"_

_Danny quickly turned to face her, a look of shock and surprise on his face. It took some time, but eventually he felt for a pulse on Casey and answered "He's dead."_

_Lindsay nodded and lowered her gun, putting the safety back on. "Is Lucy OK?" She waited as Danny checked her over, inadvertently setting the little girl off again by touching a red mark on her forehead. "She's only got a bump on her head, the blood must be his."_

"_Are you OK?"_

"_Yeah."_

_With the answer to her 3 questions, Lindsay saw no need to stay there. After nodding to acknowledge Danny's answer, she turned and headed down the hall towards the living room. As she put her gun down on the dining room table, Danny's footfalls told her that he had followed. She turned around to look at Danny and Lucy, and noticed that Lucy was running her finger through the blood on her shirt._

"_Take the shirt off her, she keeps touching the blood." As Danny sat Lucy on the bar counter, Lindsay walked into the kitchen to wet a towel for Danny and placed it on the counter beside the little girl before picking up the t-shirt and putting it down flat on the table next to her gun. She grabbed one of the dining room chairs and carried it across the living room, giving herself her own space to sit. Heading over to the corner, Lindsay picked up the playpen and moved it right next to the couch. As she made her way back to the chair, she heard a small giggle come from Lucy, but she thought nothing of it._

_Sitting down, she turned her attention out the window, hearing the approaching sirens. "I hear sirens," Danny said and she nodded in agreement. She glanced over at him as he walked over to the front door, the little girl now securely on his shoulder. She heard the door unlock and open before he reappeared. As he began to put Lucy down in the playpen, Lindsay turned her attention back to the window, seeing flashing red and blue lights off in the distance and getting closer._

"…The officers came running in the door identifying themselves. Danny identified himself as NYPD and explained about what had happened. The officer's nodded and went about securing the scene."

"OK. Do you have any idea how Shane Casey got into your apartment?"

"Probably through the window in Lucy's room, which is also the fire escape exit."

"Is there anything else that you left out of the story, anything at all that is pertinent to the investigation?"

Lindsay thought for a moment and she dared a glance at Mac, who was masking what he was thinking. She'd noticed the looks people were giving her, but she knew that whatever they were thinking about her, what was truly going on did not have anything to do with what she had done.

"No," she stated firmly.

Owens nodded his head and closed his notepad. "Thank you Detective. If I have anymore questions for you, I'll contact Detective Taylor and ask him to set up a meeting for us. If not, a ruling on your actions should be made sometime within the next couple of days." Owens stood up and turned to exit, hitching his head in the direction of the hallway as a way of asking Mac to come join him outside.

Mac nodded and waited until Owens had left before he spoke to Lindsay. "Danny and Lucy are upstairs in your office. Go get some rest, even if you don't sleep. We'll talk in the morning, but I'm certain that you have nothing to worry about."

Lindsay nodded and stood up to leave the room, with Mac following her out, and he watched as she disappeared around the corner and headed for the stairs just as Danny had done. No longer able to see her, he turned and walked over to Owens.

"If both their stories are backed up by the evidence, IAB won't be taking any further action on this case. My report will be on your desk in the next couple of days." Mac nodded and reached out to shake Owens's hand. Owens took it and then left the hallway, heading out into the bullpen.

Mac was about to seek out Flack and Stella when the two of them showed up before him.

"I can't believe it," Stella said, the shock clearly in her voice and her eyes moist.

"I hope the bastard rots in hell," Flack chimed in with.

"I'm worried about Lindsay, she seems way too calm for someone who just had to shoot a man dead in her own home," Mac confessed, earning agreeing nods from his two colleagues.

"Is she still in shock?" Stella pondered aloud.

"I'm not sure. I think that that's part of it, but there's something else going on within her. We'll leave it for now and hopefully she'll be more like herself in the morning. I'm heading back to my office now, we can all gather there and try to figure out what happened. Flack, you go call Sid, I think he was working tonight and if Casey's body showed up before he left, I know he would've stayed." Flack nodded and headed for his desk.

Together, Mac and Stella started heading for the elevators. "We'll go grab Hawkes and Adam, I'm sure they've been keeping track of what the other team found." Stella nodded as she and Mac stepped onto the car to take them back upstairs.

* * *

Ten minutes later, Mac, Stella, Hawkes, Adam, Sid and Flack were all crowded into Mac's office. Mac was the first to speak and he brought everyone up to speed on what Danny and Lindsay had revealed about what had transpired at their home. Hawkes, Adam and Sid were all shocked by the story, and so were the other three, though they had heard it first-hand.

"How are they all?" Sid asked, the only one who had not had the chance to see the Messers.

"Except for a small bump on Lucy's head from going down with Casey, they're all fine physically. Emotionally, it's not so easy to tell. Danny didn't want to be separated from Lindsay or Lucy, which is understandable, and Lindsay, she's pulled into herself. She's talking and reacting more than when we first got to their apartment, but she seems to be on autopilot." Everyone else nodded in agreement with Mac's assessment.

"When Danny came up to the office, he seemed more himself, he tried to apologize for freaking out in the parking lot about me and Adam taking Lucy, but I said that he had nothing to apologize for. I think right now, he'd trying to figure out what's going on with Lindsay, and how he can help her," Hawkes added.

"Well, we'll leave that for now, let them be alone tonight and hope that the morning will be better for them all." Turning back to Sid, Mac spoke again. "Is the autopsy on Casey done yet?"

"When I left, they were just finishing with him. I observed the whole thing, and what was found matches up with their story. All the bruises on his body showed some signs of healing, so they're from the fight at the lighthouse. The fatal wound was a through and through to the forehead, from no more than 10 feet away. Shane Casey was killed on impact, there's no question about that. Lindsay may not use her gun often, but she knows exactly what she's doing."

Mac nodded and turned to Adam, who began to fidget a bit under Mac's intense gaze. "What does the rest of the evidence say?"

"I tried not to look too interested in what they were doing, but Rivers and Terry knew I was snooping, so they put me to work. I helped them process Danny's and Lindsay's clothes, looking for anything and everything. There was nothing on his clothes and the GSR test on him was negative. There was a bit of blood under his finger nails, but it came back as Shane Casey's, and going with their story, most likely came from when he checked Casey for a pulse or when he was cleaning the blood off Lucy. Lindsay's clothes had nothing but GSR on them, and the same with her hands. We didn't find anything that contradicts their story."

"Hawkes, what about the evidence from the scene?"

"Well, one of the other CSIs owed me a favour, so he filled me in on what they had done so far and let me stay while they finished. They dusted Danny and Lindsay's front door for prints and found a couple, but they only belonged to Danny and Lindsay, and there was no evidence of tampering with the lock. Now, they dusted Lucy's window and the fire escape, thinking that it was the likely entry point. There were a couple of prints on the fire escape, but they were only partials. The window, however, was a jackpot: Not only was there evidence of it having been forced open, but there were two perfect sets of prints on the inside of the window, and they were Casey's. From their positioning, he used his hands to push the window up from the outside."

"What about the gun and Lucy's shirt?"

"The blood on her shirt was all a match to Casey. Now, the CSIs are running a simulation right now to prove that Lucy was in Casey's arms when he was shot, and I'm sure that's exactly what they'll find. They dug the bullet round out of the wall and compared it to a test fire round from Lindsay's gun – they're a match. Everything they have backs up their stories."

Several of the people in the office let out sighs of relief then, including Mac. It was not that he or anyone else thought that Danny and Lindsay were lying; they were just happy to hear that the case was pretty much open and shut.

"Alright, it's been a stressful past two days for all of us. Go get some rest, we all are on shift tomorrow. I'll let Danny and Lindsay know that the evidence backs them up in the morning. I know we didn't directly solve this one, but good work everyone." Mac watched as everyone nodded in agreement and started filing out of his office, all heading in different directions. To some, this team looked like a hodgepodge of individuals, but they were a well-oiled machine that got the job done every time.

Mac, suddenly feeling exhausted, shut off the overhead lights in his office and logged off his computer, leaving only the lamp on his desk as a source of light. Heading back to his couch, he sat down and slipped his shoes off before moving into a laying down position. Just like he instructed the rest of the team, Mac closed his eyes and tried to get some rest.

* * *

**OK, so I'm going to break with my usual policy on this one and ask that you please leave me a review for this chapter. Ever since I wrote this chapter in rough, I've been agonizing over whether Lindsay's response (the emotional shutdown) is completely ludicrous or whether it actually works. I accept any and all comments, so please don't be shy.**

**Next chapter: Danny. Lindsay. Both in the same room. What will happen?**

**Thank you for reading! **


	6. Chapter 6

***peeks out nervously* So I realize that I'd said in my review responses that I'd probably have this up on Monday, and it is now just after 2 am on Wednesday here, but I have a reason for this being late: you see, after reading the responses I got back for the previous chapter (and some before then too), a lot of you were really highlighting Lindsay's anger at Danny for breaking his promise. When I typed the chapter up as I had originally written it, she only acknowledged that anger really quickly, and I felt that it was a story thread that I had really dropped the ball on. The original version of this chapter was much shorter, and what transpired between them seemed to happen too fast (and too easily) given what they'd been through, so it needed a massive overhaul (I kept some of the original version, but most of it changed). I never imagined that the overhaul would take me so long to do, but I've struggled with it, not sure if I went too far the other way now (from too easy to too crazy).**

**I'm gonna stop making excuses now and just let you all get on to what you've been waiting so patiently for.**

* * *

Lindsay was in no rush to get upstairs and go to her office – she even questioned whether she should go there or not. She had behaved like this only one previous time in her life, and remembering that experience, she knew that there was nothing she could do but let her mind and body work as they so chose. There was no on/off switch that could magically bring her out of it and make her all better, so she would have to wait it out.

A great portion of her hesitance was because she knew her biggest problem would be dealing with Danny: the minute she entered the room, he would try to get her to open up, to tell him why she was pulling away from him, but she knew that she couldn't answer those questions right now. She needed time and space, but Danny and Lucy needed just the opposite. As she slowly climbed the stairs, Lindsay tried to determine just whose needs were more important at the moment. Weighing the pros and cons of each rationally, she came to the conclusion that she needed to go to her office.

Focusing on the new task before her, she exited the stairwell and glanced over at the office, noticing that only the light on her desk was on. Taking it as a sign that both Danny and Lucy were asleep, she opened and closed the office door quietly. Casting her eyes into the far corner of the office, she could make out the outline of the playpen and hear the even breathing of its occupant. Satisfied that Lucy was in fact asleep, she turned her attention to the couch, where she could see Danny had crammed himself onto. His breathing was even as well, and since he made no movements after she waited for several moments, she knew he was asleep as well.

She started to make her way over to her desk, deciding to turn off the light and put her head down and rest for a while, but stopped when she heard a dull thud. She looked over at both Danny and Lucy, thinking it was one of them, but neither had moved. She brushed it off, chalking it up to exhaustion, and took another two steps before she heard it again. This time, she stood still and waited for the sound to happen again, closing her eyes to focus on what direction it was coming from.

Nothing happened for several moments, and then she heard it again. *Thud* It was followed quickly by another. Then another. The single thud turned into a series of them, slow at first, but gaining speed with each successive one. By the time Lindsay figured out where the sounds were coming from, they were almost on top of one another.

The sounds were coming from her chest – her heart, to be precise.

She let out a breath, having not realized that she was holding it while she tried to figure out the mysterious noise. With the next intake of air, Lindsay felt like she had been punched in the gut. She doubled over in shock and pain, and her mind was filled with so many thoughts all at once:

_The shock and disbelief of hearing Shane Casey' voice over the baby monitor._

_The hurt and anger of listening to Danny give up on his own life, trying to bargain instead for her life and Lucy's._

_Her heartbreak while listening to Danny say goodbye to Lucy._

_The fact that she could have easily lost Danny or Lucy or both of them, either by Shane Casey's hand or through her own error._

_The pain over having taken another life, even Shane Casey's._

_The guilt over keeping both Danny and Lucy at arm's length._

With everything that was going on in her mind, it took Lindsay a moment to realize that she was once more in full control of her own actions and emotions, but that was after a sob or two had already escaped her lips. She was suddenly very aware that she was about to break down in a room where people were currently sleeping, and she knew that she needed to leave. Forcing herself upright and willing her legs to carry her as quickly as possible, she bolted for the door, yanking it open, and fled. She was gone so quickly that she never heard an emotion-laden voice break the relative silence.

"Linds?"

* * *

What Lindsay had not realized when she entered the office was that Danny was in fact still awake. He heard the door open and he quickly peaked out from under his arms to see who it was, making out the frame of his wife in the low light. Her back was turned to him as she slowed the door from snapping shut, so he quickly re-covered his eyes and focused on evening out his breathing, feigning sleep. Though he needed to talk to her, he wanted to see what she was going to do first. If she planned on pushing him away some more, he needed a little more time to prepare himself for the ensuing battle. Danny needed to know what was going on with her, and he was going to get her to talk to him, whether she wanted to or not. It hurt that she was pushing him away, but what was worse was that she was neglecting Lucy: she acted as if their daughter wasn't even there, and though Lucy may not have picked up on it yet, she would soon if Lindsay continued with her behaviour.

He prayed that she would come over to him and try and wake him up, but when he heard her footfalls head further into the office, he sighed. His frustration boiled up once more and he felt tears begin to streak down his still-covered face, his breathing becoming more laboured as well. He knew that if Lindsay was paying attention, she would figure out that he wasn't actually asleep, but since she seemed to be ignoring him, he knew that he would have to reveal that fact to her himself. He opened his eyes and was about to uncover them when he heard the sound of a sob fill the room. He stopped and waited for more, and he heard another. He sat up slowly, knowing his back would protest if he went quickly, and called out the one name he hoped those sounds, however horrible, had come from.

"Linds?"

His only reply came with the snapping shut of the office door. He stood up and rushed over to the playpen, listening for a moment to Lucy's even breathing, making sure that the sound had not come from her. Certain that his daughter was still asleep, Danny was now faced with a dilemma: should he stay here with Lucy on the off chance that she woke up because of a nightmare and then freaked out because she was in an unfamiliar environment, or should he go follow Lindsay and figure out what had just happened. He knew it was not a good idea to leave Lucy all alone without someone to check up on her, but there was something about what had just happened that made him believe that the Lindsay that had just ran out of the room was not the same women who he'd found holding a gun on Shane Casey.

Deciding that he was needed more elsewhere, Danny left the office, looking up and down the hallway for any indication of where his wife had gone. Not finding anything, Danny started walking over to the stairwell, thinking that she had gone there for a little privacy. On the way, he ran into a young officer, who he guessed was on his way back from dropping some evidence with one of the lab techs.

"Hey, have you seen a petit brunette woman, she ran out of an office about a minute ago crying? She's my wife."

"Yes sir, she went running off that way," the young officer said, pointing towards the locker room.

"Thanks. Hey, can you do me a favour? Our daughter is sleeping back in our office, can you just stand outside the door and make sure that she doesn't start crying while I go find my wife?"

"OK."

"Thanks kid. It's office 28, on your left, the nameplate says Detectives D. and L. Messer," Danny said over his shoulder as he ran off to the locker room.

He was thankful that it was the middle of the night at the lab, meaning that there was only a skeleton crew of people working, because if this had been the middle of the day, everybody would have been talking about seeing Lindsay running through the lab in tears. People already had enough to talk about with respect to him and Lindsay, they didn't need anything else to fuel the gossip.

As Danny put his hand on the door of the locker room to push it open, he could already hear the soul-wrenching sobs that Lindsay was currently experiencing. He burst through the door and quickly found her cowering in the corner furthest from the door, her head resting on her knees and her arms keeping her legs as close to her body as possible. He crossed the void between them in several large steps and he crouched down in front of her.

"Babe…"

The next thing Danny knew, he had landed on his ass several feet back, a searing pain on the left side of his face. Reaching out to grab his face, he stared over in shock at his wife, her arm still raised and her red eyes trained on him, her stare cold and hard though her tears continued and her body kept convulsing from the sobs.

"What the fuck Linds?"

"Get away from me!" Her voice was no longer devoid of emotion: she spat the words out at him.

"What?"

"Get the hell away from me!" Lindsay spat out again, starting to stand up, determined to get away from him if he wasn't going to listen to her.

"No!" He saw what she was about to do, so he stood right in her way, moving with her every time she tried to side-step him. When she reached out to shove him out of her way, he caught both her arms and stopped her.

"Let go you bastard!" She pulled her arms from his grasp and stepped back, trying to come up with a new tactic. Danny stepped back as well, giving her more room, but making sure that there was no way for her to get past him.

"What the hell is going on here Lindsay? I have no idea what is going on with you – first you act like a robot, now you're getting physical with me!" Danny was completely confused: what had changed within his wife?

"You want to know what my problem is? It's _you_!"

"What did I do?"

"You broke your promise!" Lindsay's eyes continued to glare at him as her arms came up and encircled her own body, trying to comfort herself.

"I…I didn't think you heard that," Danny admitted dejectedly, his eyes unable to look at his wife.

She noticed how upset he seemed about his own actions, but she was past the point of caring at the moment. "So, just because you didn't think I heard it, that makes it OK?"

"No, but…"

"You promised me that you weren't going anywhere, and then you invite Shane Casey to go ahead and kill you? What the fuck is that?"

"What else could I have done? He had Lucy in his arms and he had a gun on me. The one time I tried to defy him, he started to turn the gun on _our_ daughter. If I had done anything, he would have killed her. I had to protect her, and you." Danny knew that he couldn't really excuse his actions, but he hoped that if he explained what he had been facing, she would see that he'd had few options.

Lindsay, however, wasn't buying any of it.

"You could have tried to make enough noise to wake me up, or maybe draw the attention of one of our neighbours. You could have had enough faith in me to know that I would have figured out that something was wrong and would come to help you. But no, you have do go around acting like you're this one man show, keeping everyone else safe while sacrificing yourself."

"You don't think Shane Casey would have figured it out right away if I tried to get your attention? C'mon, he ain't that stupid. And I didn't think you heard anything – when I got up, you were still out, you hadn't moved at all since you'd fallen asleep. I had no clue that you were even aware of what was going on until you asked me if he was dead. I thought he'd shot me, I didn't know that you'd got him first." Danny paused to take a breath, and he glanced over at Lindsay, seeing that she was now avoiding his gaze. "You honestly think I wanted to die, that I was willing to give in so easily?"

"That's what it seemed like to me," Lindsay responded curtly, still looking away from Danny.

"Well, you're wrong. Of course I wanted to live, but I had no weapon to fight back with and Lucy was being used against me. I couldn't see how I was going to make it out of there alive. The rational part of me took over and I was trying to keep you and Lucy safe. I was hoping and praying that if he did what he came to do, he'd leave you and Lucy alone. To me, that seemed like a fair price to pay: my life for yours and Lucy's. That's not what I wanted to choose, but that was the only acceptable choice: I couldn't have lived with myself if I did something that got you or Lucy killed. It may have cost me my life, but you know me, Lindsay, I protect the people I love, with everything I got."

"I don't need your protection, I NEED YOU!" Lindsay's eyes met his once more, and her tears had subsided at least for the moment, her anger taking hold of her once again.

Her last barb caused something to snap within Danny. He knew that he shouldn't have escalated this anymore, but she'd pushed him too far. "You need me? You really expect me to believe that after the way you've been acting ever since you killed Shane Casey? You've pushed me away, you've been ignoring your own daughter, who has no idea what the hell is going on, and you've got this wall built up around you that nobody can get through. You asked me if Casey was dead, if Lucy was OK, if I was OK and then I've gotten nothing out of you since – you've barely even looked at me until now! Shane Casey made me say goodbye to my own daughter, and I had to all but beg him to cover her face so she wouldn't see me die right in front of her! I didn't think I'd ever get to see you or her again! I needed you after that, and I've needed you for the past several hours, but you've been acting like a fucking robot!"

"I can't do this anymore! Just go, please," A lot of the anger that Lindsay had had only moments before was now gone, and her eyes pleaded with him to listen to her.

"No, I want to know what the hell is going on with you, and I'm not leaving here until you tell me!" Danny crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her, determined to get his answers.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Then make me."

Lindsay closed her eyes and tried to collect herself, certain that Danny was not going to believe what she was about to tell him – in all honesty, who would – but he deserved to hear the truth. "I wasn't making a conscious choice to pull away from you, I just shut down emotionally. The same thing happened to me when my friends died, it's a defence mechanism or something. I got through answering all the police questions about what happened the night my friends were murdered. I picked Daniel Cadence out of a line, I saw the parents of my dead friends and apologized for not being able to save their daughters' lives. I didn't break down through all of it until my parents took me home. I got into my room and saw a picture of the four of us and I completely lost it. I never told you about it because I never thought it would happen again and I didn't want to freak you out.

"It all started again when I heard you ask for Lucy's face to be covered. My heart stopped beating at that moment, and then all my emotions stopped registering when he told you to say goodbye to Lucy. My mind and body shut everything else out but rationality, and I've been kept focused on what I needed to do: first it was to stop Casey, and then it was to answer IAB's questions. When that was finished, my next task was to go to the office and be with you and Lucy, even though I needed time and space, because your needs were more pressing. I guess my mind also thought that you'd both be asleep, so I could have the time while still fulfilling your needs. I started to head over to my desk to put my head down and get some rest, and then my heart started beating again. Everything came rushing back to me and I needed to get out of there before I lost it while you and Lucy were both asleep." Lindsay looked over at her husband, trying to gage his reaction, and he looked as though he was confused. "Maybe shut down isn't the best way to explain it, because as I discovered the first time this happened, just because I wasn't dealing with my emotions in the moment doesn't mean I wasn't feeling them at all. It's more like there was a disconnect between my emotions and me actually feeling them. I don't know how else to explain it."

Lindsay dared another glance at Danny, and now he appeared to be in disbelief. Sure that she'd been right all along and that he wouldn't accept her explanation, Lindsay turned away from him, her tears beginning once more. If he didn't believe her, how could they ever get past this?

"Paralysis."

Lindsay whipped around, unsure whether he'd actually spoken or it had been in her head. She stared at him and she could see that he was now crying as well. "What did you say?"

"It's like a temporary paralysis: you can't feel things, but that doesn't mean you don't get hurt."

Lindsay was in shock. She'd struggled for years to figure out a way to explain what had happened to her, even just for her own piece of mind, and in one fell swoop, Danny had accurately captured the entire thing.

The two of them stood in silence for several long minutes, staring at each other, neither sure of what to say or do next. Danny was the first to break the hold pattern and he slowly made his way closer to Lindsay, giving her ample opportunity to stop him. This time, Lindsay didn't push him away, but met him in the middle, wrapping her arms around him and crushing her body to his as sobs rocked her body once more. Danny held onto her just as fiercely, and he cried along with her, finally able to rid himself of what he'd been holding onto for the past several hours.

Neither knew for how long they stayed like that, but by the time they'd pulled apart, both had tear-stained shirts. Danny noticed that Lindsay looked like she was about to collapse, so he tightened his grip on her. "Let's head back to the office now, we can sit down and continue this there."

Lindsay responded by nodding her head and she let Danny lead her back to their office.

As they came to the hallway leading directly to their office, Danny noticed that the young officer who he'd asked to stand watch over Lucy was still there, glancing down the hallway in search of his young charge's parents. He finally noticed Danny and approached him, not wanting to disturb Lucy. "I hope you don't mind sir, I propped the door open just a little to make sure that I'd hear any cries she might make, but she's been quite the entire time."

"Not a problem. I'm glad that nothing happened while we were gone. Thanks a lot for your help…" Danny stopped mid-sentence, and looked to the young officer, waiting for him to say his name.

"John Druitt, sir."

"Well, thank you very much, Officer Druitt, but please quit calling me 'sir' – Danny will do just fine." He reached out to shake the young man's hand, which Druitt eagerly accepted. "I owe you one Druitt, so if you ever need some help, just give me a call."

Druitt was shocked at the warm reception he'd received from Detective Danny Messer, a man who had a reputation throughout the NYPD as a bit of a tough customer that you really didn't want to mess around with, but Druitt could tell that that rumour did not so easily sum up the man before him. "It wasn't any trouble Danny, and thanks. I should be heading back to finish up my paperwork, so goodnight."

"See you around kid."

Druitt turned to Lindsay and smiled warmly before heading off to the elevators. Watching him leave with a smile on his face, Danny shook his head thinking about the young officer and continued to their office, holding the door for Lindsay before closing it and heading back to the couch. He sat down on it and leaned forward to slip his shoes off, and he was surprised when he didn't feel the couch shift as Lindsay sat down with him. He looked to the other end of the couch and noticed that Lindsay wasn't there, but instead was still standing just inside the door, her face full of hesitation.

"Linds, what's wrong?"

"I don't know why you want me here, after everything that I put you through tonight," she admitted, avoiding his gaze.

Before Danny started to explain to her just how wrong she was, he got off the couch and walked over to her, stopping just in front of her and he reached out to hold her face in his hands. "Babe, I'm not mad about what you did because you explained to me what was going on. I believe that you didn't have any control over it, so if you're worried about that, then don't be. I won't lie to you and say that I wasn't hurt by your actions, but now I understand them, and you have nothing to feel sorry about. I wish you would have told me about the first time it happened because maybe this could have gone a lot smoother, but I understand that it's still hard for you to talk sometimes about what happened to your friends and what you went through after that, and I get that you never dreamed that this kinda thing would happen to you again. I'm just glad that I know about it now, and I hope that there's never another situation that will make it happen again."

Lindsay stared up at her husband, trying to see if there was even the smallest hint of a lie in his words, and she was relieved to see that he meant every single one. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Danny, and she felt him once again hold her close, this time placing a kiss into her hair. Breaking their close contact, she walked over to the couch and sat down, taking off her shoes as she waited for Danny to sit down beside her before she spoke.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about it, and I know that was a horrible way to learn about it, but I'm glad that you know about it as well. This may sound crazy, but I'm kinda glad that this defence mechanism kicked in when it did – it allowed me to focus on dealing with Shane Casey with one blow, because otherwise, I think I could have messed it up and got you, Lucy, or you both hurt, or…" Lindsay trailed off as her tears renewed.

"Hey, hey shhh, it's over now. You got him and he can't hurt us anymore. Both Lucy and I are safe, and we have you to thank for that."

Lindsay shook her head quickly. "I was just doing what I was trained to do, you would've done the same thing in my position."

Danny's hands darted out quickly to grab her shoulders firmly, turning her so that she was face to face with him. "Don't do that Linds, don't brush off what you did like it was nothing out of the ordinary. I would've done the same thing if the roles were reversed, but I know for a fact that I couldn't have done it with the same amount of courage. I would've been struggling with my emotions and trying not to shake like crazy at the prospect of hurting you or Lucy in the process. It may not have been conscious, but I wouldn't have been able to muster up that much focus in that situation. You're my hero, Linds, because you saved me and our daughter, and I'll be eternally grateful to you for that. You can scoff at the title if you like, but true heroes are always the ones who never think they did anything special, they're just people doing what they're supposed to."

He tilted his head down and looked out at her intensely, a look she recognized and knew not to argue with. Instead, she moved her head up and down and gave him a small but warm smile in appreciation of his words.

"That's something I never get tired of seeing," he said as a similar smile took over his features, then disappeared as he remembered something.

"What is it babe?" Lindsay asked, having noticed the change in Danny's face.

"I probably should be the one doing the apologizing here Lindsay, because you're right about me breaking that promise to you. Frankly, I don't know why you would even want to be in the same room with me after that. I did give up too easily, and there really is no excuse for it. But you have to know that it was weighing on my mind that I was breaking that promise to you: when I was so sure that I wasn't going to make it out of there, I regretted that I couldn't keep my word to you - that and the fact that Lucy wouldn't remember me." Danny started crying softly, disappointed in himself for making a promise that he'd already failed to keep, even though it was the one thing that he'd promised his wife that he'd desperately wanted to stay true to. He tried to look away from her, not wanting to see the disappointment in her eyes, but Lindsay reached out to cup the one side of his face, the same side she'd slapped, keeping their eyes locked together.

"First off, I'm sorry for hitting you – you didn't deserve that, no matter what you'd done. And about the other things you said, Danny: if worst came to worst, Lucy may not have remembered you herself, but that doesn't mean that she'd ever forget you. I'd have never let that happen – she'd have always known who her daddy was and how much he loved her, even if he couldn't be with her anymore. And I know for a fact that you'd do the same if it was me." She saw him nod in agreement, and tears started flowing down her cheeks again, spurred on by the macabre topic. "And I owe you an apology about that promise, it was unfair of me to ask that of you."

"But it shouldn't have to be!" Danny was getting frustrated, wanting his life to be so much simpler than it was, but knowing that that life would come only in a different career – and even then nothing was ever so straightforward.

"Dan, I want it to be that easy just as much as you do, but you and I both know that those types of promises can't be kept, no matter what you do, because ultimately, we don't make those kinds of decisions. It was just that after everything that we'd been through, not only in the past few months, but even going back further than that to when we first became friends, I just needed to hear you promise that you weren't leaving me."

Danny listened to the words that she said, and there was something in the way she'd worded her last sentence that clicked in his head. "Now that I _can_ promise you." She looked at him, not understanding what he meant, but she waited as he took her hands in his and explained. "Lindsay Monroe-Messer, I will never abandon you of my own free will. You and Lucy mean so much to me and together we've built a life based on love and happiness. I don't want to give that up for anything in this world, or the next."

Lindsay stared at him with tears in her eyes, seeing the love he felt for her radiating out from his entire being. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she reiterated his pledge back to him, but in her own way. "Danny Messer, I promise to stay with you forever and not give up on what we have by choice. The love and joy and support I get from you and Lucy everyday is unlike anything I've ever felt before, and it makes me feel whole. I don't want that to ever end."

The smiles slowly returned to their faces as they leaned forward for a loving kiss. Pulling apart after a moment, they rested their foreheads together, not willing to give up their closeness just yet.

"I love you Danny."

"And I love you too Lindsay. Now let's try and get some rest. I don't think either of us will be able to sleep, but at the very least we can lie down here on this small couch and relax for a little while."

Lindsay nodded and stood up, needing to stretch before she crammed herself onto the couch. Danny stood up and walked over to Lindsay's desk, turning the lamp off. If they needed it, one of them could always turn it on again, but he figured there had the best chance of getting rest if the light wasn't blinding them. He groped his way back to the couch and lowered himself onto the middle. Turning to lay down on his back, he could feel Lindsay's body pressed against the back of the couch, turned on her side so she'd be trapped between the couch and her husband. He settled in and felt Lindsay's upper body lay on top of his own, her head resting very close to his heart. He wrapped his one arm around her body, holding her to him once more and let his other hand seek out on of hers, intertwining their fingers and placing them on his stomach. Together, they lay there in the dark, listening to the soothing sounds of their daughter steadily breathing in and out, still fast asleep.

* * *

**Alright, I hope you didn't hate all the changes I made! **

**I know I usually do this at the start, but I really wanted to make sure that I said a gigantic THANK YOU! to each and every one of the people who reviewed the last chapter. Hearing back from you was the driving force behind the changes to this chapter, because I didn't want to let you down by whimping out on a plot point you really felt strongly about (and one that you were all completely right about) – you all certainly deserve better than that!**

**I'm going to run off to bed now, but thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to follow this story! Goodnight everyone!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Another day, another chapter: I honestly have no idea how to introduce the next chapter as it's a combination of a bunch of things happening with our favourite couple (and some other people too), so let's just say it's the beginning of day 3 of the Messer's vacation.**

**Once again, a huge THANK YOU! goes out to all of you who read and reviewed the last chapter, and for those of you who just read it ('cause that's OK too) – there was quite a positive reaction to what went down between Danny and Lindsay, and it really means a lot to me (and helps a bit with my insecurities too!).**

**Now, enough about my variety of neuroses, let's get on with the chapter, shall we?**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

It was early the next morning when Mac decided to check up on the Messers. After a quick shower, shave and change of clothes, and grabbing a cup of coffee from the cart just outside the building, Mac returned to his office to check his phone messages and his e-mail, seeing nothing that he couldn't get back to later. He saw that while he was gone, a folder had been placed on the middle of his desk, and it bore the label of "Casey, Shane" and a case number. He opened it up and found right on the top a preliminary summary of what the other CSIs had found on the case. He skimmed it quickly and saw that nothing new had been discovered overnight, which set him at ease for what he was about to do. Closing the folder and finishing up the last of his coffee, he left his office and headed for the one shared by Danny and Lindsay.

As he approached it, he noticed that there were no lights on and he couldn't detect any kind of movement in the room, so he started to hope that all 3 of them were still asleep. Deciding to forgo the knocking just in case his hunch was right, Mac quietly opened the door and closed it again behind him. He peered over at the couch and saw, even without a light on, that Danny and Lindsay had crammed their bodies together onto the small couch, tangled up in one another and deep asleep.

Mac was about to tip toe out of the office again to give them all some more time to sleep when he heard a small giggle from across the room. A smile growing on his lips, he turned around and headed towards the sound. He could just make out Lucy's form at the edge of the playpen, standing up and peering over the edge at her potential playmate. Reaching for the switch for the under cupboard light over the sink that happened to be in the same corner as Lucy, he turned it on knowing that the light was too dull and too far away to wake up the couple.

Lucy, now able to see just exactly who her potential rescuer was, started bouncing up and down. "Up p'ease Mac, up."

He looked down at her and couldn't stop his smile from growing even more. "OK Lucy, but we have to be quiet, Mommy and Daddy are still sleeping." He put his finger over his mouth, hoping that between his words and his actions Lucy would understand him. She appeared to do exactly that as she parroted his movement and nodded her head dramatically.

He leaned down and lifted her up, settling her on his left hip as he snuck back over to Danny's desk for a piece of paper and a pen, wanting to leave a note telling them why they couldn't find Lucy. He completely expected one or both of them to still freak out before finding the note, but he hoped they'd understand why he was doing it. He scribbled down a note as quickly as possible, the light from the light across the room just enough for him to see by, and propped it up against Lindsay's desk lamp, the closest light to them.

Heading back across the room, he found Lucy's diaper bag and suitcase, and after turning off the light over the sink, he took a firm grasp on both bags and made a quiet exit from the office, not disturbing them at all despite the fact that he barely had a free finger to open the door with.

"Thank you for help Mac not wake Mommy and Daddy, Lucy, you did a great job!" He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"Yeah 'ucy!" she responded while clapping for herself.

"OK Lucy, let's go get you some breakfast and then we'll wait for Auntie Stella to come, she'll love to help Mac get you dressed."

"Ste'a!" The little girl squealed at the mention of her favourite (and only) aunt, causing Mac to start laughing.

He was so glad to see first-hand that Lucy was mainly untouched by what she and her parents had had to live through in the span of only two days. He bounced her on his hip while he walked towards the break room, her laughter filling up the hallway the entire way there.

* * *

It was nearly another 3 hours before Lindsay opened her eyes. At first, she couldn't remember where she was, or why she felt so uncomfortable. Then her brain partially kicked in and reminded her that she was on the couch in her office at work. She started to squirm where she was and she heard Danny begin to groan underneath her from the movement. Lindsay then had the memories of what happened the night before flood back to her, and she took a deep breath and told herself that it was all over, Shane Casey couldn't hurt them anymore, Danny was safe, and so was Lucy.

Lindsay became alert immediately. "Lucy."

"She's over in the playpen, probably still asleep," Danny choked out, still half asleep himself.

"She's gotta be awake by now, Danny." Lindsay started to crawl over Danny to get off the couch, causing him to yelp when she accidentally hit him in the chin with her shoulder. Apologizing quickly, she padded over to where the playpen was and flipped on the nearby light over the sink. Looking in the playpen and seeing it empty, Lindsay started to panic.

"Lucy's gone!"

"Whatdaya mean she's gone?" Danny asked as he started to get up himself, reaching for the lamp on Lindsay's desk to see better.

"She's not in the playpen." Lindsay's mind went into overdrive as tears started down her face and she feared what had happened to Lucy.

"Linds, she's with Mac, he left a note. It's OK, she's safe."

Lindsay hurried back over to where Danny was and took the note from him, needing to read it for herself.

_I came in to check on you guys and you were still asleep, but Lucy was awake. I didn't want to wake you, so I'm taking Lucy to my office. She's safe with me, don't worry. Go grab yourselves showers and some coffee, and come find me when you're finished so we can talk. – Mac_

Lindsay collapsed on the couch and put her head in her hands to cry. Danny sat down beside her once more and threw his arms around her, aware that she was still on an emotional rollercoaster and really needed that comfort from him.

"She's OK sweetie. There's no where she could've gone to in here: she can't get out of the playpen and anybody would be an idiot to try and get into a building crawling with cops," he said as he tried to lighten the mood somewhat.

"I know, it's just that my brain isn't keeping up right now."

He pulled her close and laid a kiss into her hair. "That's OK. Maybe if we both took showers and get some coffee we'll both feel a little better."

"OK, but can we do all that as quickly as possible? I really want to see Lucy."

He smiled, glad to see that the Lindsay he knew and loved was returning. "Sure. I'll even race you if you want." Lindsay smiled back at him and shook her head, knowing Danny was trying his best to make her feel better.

Getting off the couch, Danny retrieved their suitcase from across the room and walked over to the door, where Lindsay was now standing and waiting for him. "You ready Linds?"

Reaching out for his hand, she linked their fingers before answering with a nod of her head. She took the suitcase from him with her free hand, allowing him to open the door and lead them to the locker room.

* * *

Within fifteen minutes, now showered, changed and with cups of coffee in hand, Danny and Lindsay headed off to Mac's office in search of their daughter.

"Lucy, please don't stand up on the couch. You could fall down," they heard Mac say from several feet outside his office.

" 'ucy jump!"

"No jumping on the couch!"

"P'ease Mac?"

"No."

The couple walked in as Lucy was just about to launch into a temper tantrum, her sniffles dramatic and loud. Danny stepped in quickly, noticing the exacerbated look on Mac's face.

"Lucy Messer, we don't stand on the furniture, and we certainly don't jump on it. You know better."

A little shocked by the sudden presence of her father, Lucy nonetheless listened to him, her tears suddenly stopping, and she quickly threw herself back into the couch, effectively sitting down, and stared up at Danny. He crouched down beside her and he softened his face. "Thank you sweetie. Now can you please say sorry to Mac for not listening?"

"Sowwy Mac."

"I accept your apology, Lucy." Mac reached forward to tickle her belly as a way to let her know that he wasn't mad at her and he was on the receiving end of a fit of giggles.

As he listened to his goddaughter giggle, Mac became aware that Lindsay had not come in with Danny. Glancing towards the door, he watched as she quietly stood just outside his office, looking more than a little terrified. Just watching her, Mac could see that something had changed within her, that she was no longer so cut off from the world and from her friends and family. He was relieved to see that she was more like herself, and as he spoke to the little girl, he kept his eyes trained on Lindsay. "Hey Lucy, it looks like both Mommy and Daddy finally woke up and they came just to see you!"

As Lindsay had showered and changed into a new set of clothes, she had become more and more eager to go see Lucy, pick her up and give her a great big hug. However, as she and Danny approached Mac's office and heard the little exchange between Lucy and their boss, she'd suddenly become very apprehensive about seeing Lucy. After the way she'd been acting yesterday, she wouldn't be surprised if Lucy didn't want anything to do with her. She might have been able to make Danny understand her actions, but there was no way she could get that same point across to Lucy.

With all these fears and unknowns, Lindsay found herself rooted to the floor just outside Mac's office. While her husband was focusing his attention on disciplining Lucy, she felt Mac's eyes on her, and when she dared to meet his gaze, she saw the relief flash across his face just before he announced to Lucy that both her parents were here to see her. Lindsay panicked a bit and had no idea what to do next, so she just held her breath and waited to see how Lucy reacted.

Upon hearing what Mac said, Lucy started looking all around her, trying to find Lindsay. She finally found her mother standing just outside the door, and Lucy's eyes went wide. She quickly scrambled to her feet and jumped up and down on the couch again, unable to contain her excitement. "MOMMY!"

"Lucy, what did I just say?" Danny chimed in, just as exacerbated as Mac had been when they first walked in. Both Lindsay and Lucy ignored him and Lindsay crossed the void in two big steps, handing her coffee off to Danny just before picking Lucy up in both arms and squeezing her into her chest, tears starting to roll down her face as she showered Lucy with little kisses.

As Danny watched them with moist eyes, he honestly didn't care that Lucy had just ignored him – hell, in that moment, he didn't think that he'd care if Lucy ignored him for the rest of her life, so long as his wife and daughter remained so happy to see one another.

Mac caught Danny's eye for a moment and gestured towards Lindsay, wanting to make sure that he was right in his assumption. Danny understood what Mac was getting at, and he gave his boss a thumbs up, to which Mac reacted with a smile. With that worry removed, both men turned their full attention back to the women in the room.

"Oh sweetie, Mommy had missed you so much! Have you been having fun with Mac while Mommy and Daddy were sleeping?"

The little girl's emphatic nodding sent her blonde hair flying all over the place. "Ste'a too!"

"Mac and Aunt Stella! What a lucky little girl you are Lucy!"

"I figured Stella would love the chance to play dress-up with Lucy, so I fed her breakfast and waited until Stella came in about twenty minutes later."

Lindsay looked over at her boss suspiciously. "Were you just trying to get out of diaper duty?"

"No," Mac responded quickly, but the red creeping up on his neck and his avoiding eye contact with both Lindsay and Danny said otherwise.

Lindsay smiled, but decided to let it go. "Thanks for looking after her Mac. We both needed the rest, and this little one doesn't stop for anything."

"It's no trouble. We were having fun until she decided to stand on the couch and not listen."

Lucy hid her face in her mother's neck, thinking that she was getting in trouble again. "It's OK Lucy, you just need to listen to Mac when he asks you to do something, just like you listen to Mommy or Daddy," Lindsay said to her daughter.

Cheering up, she pulled away from Lindsay and gave her a small smile. "OK."

Both Mac and Danny remained silent for a moment, content to watch the mother-daughter interaction once more, before Stella knocked on the door and entered.

"Ste'a!" The new adult in the room re-ignited Lucy's excitement and she squirmed in her mother's arms, wanting to go visit with her aunt.

"Why hello again baby girl! Did Mommy and Daddy finally wake up?"

"Yup!" Lucy replied as she all but jumped into Stella's arms, who thankfully was ready to catch her. Lindsay smiled apologetically, and Stella didn't miss the change in Lindsay's demeanour. She looked pointedly at Lindsay, asking her a question without saying it aloud.

"I'm doing better, Stella."

Stella's face lit up even more than it was from seeing Lucy, and she lunged forward, wrapping Lindsay up in a tight one-armed hug. "I'm so glad to hear it kiddo!"

Lindsay pulled away and smiled warmly at her colleague. She stepped back and started to run her hand over Lucy's head, really not ready to give up the contact with her daughter just yet.

Mac hated to break up the sweet moment, but Stella's entrance gave him the exact chance he was looking for. "Can you please take her for a while so the three of us can talk?"

"Sure thing, Mac. C'mon Lucy, let's go have some fun!" Lucy nodded and waved goodbye to everyone who was staying behind and started babbling away to Stella, bits of their conversation trailing back into Mac's office until they both disappeared from sight.

As Lindsay watched them leave, her heart yearned for her daughter to be near her once more, but she knew that Lucy was in safe hands and that this conversation was really important. She walked around the couch and sat down, Danny joining her and handing her back her coffee cup. Mac took his customary spot leaning against the front of his desk before opening his mouth once more. "Are you two doing OK, really?" he asked pointedly, wanting to hear their honest answers now that nobody else was in the room.

"I'm sorry about yesterday Mac, I know I was scaring everybody with how I seemed to be acting, but I was trying to get everything done that needed to be done. I'm doing OK now, just trying to get back to normal." Lindsay spoke first, feeling the need to apologize to Mac.

"I'm good too Mac. It's been an exhausting past couple of days, but I think the five days left in our vacation time will help."

Mac nodded as he took in their responses. "I'm glad you think so too, because you three better be gone by the end of the day, I don't want you staying here again tonight. I'm gonna book a room for you at a nearby hotel where you can stay, courtesy of the NYPD, until your apartment is no longer an active crime scene and you can figure out what to do next."

Both nodded, and Danny was the one to speak next. "Have you heard back from IAB yet?"

"No. The evidence in the case is almost done being processed, so I imagine that the IAB report will come either later today or more likely tomorrow."

"What's the evidence saying?" Lindsay quickly blurted out, fairly sure that she'd done nothing wrong but remembering how manipulative Shane Casey could be with facts and evidence.

"You didn't hear this from me, but it's all backing up your stories. Shane Casey came in through the window in Lucy's room. While there may be no way to completely verify that your scenario is how things truly unfolded, there's been no reason to doubt your version either. Shane Casey was a psychopath who had a self-professed grudge against Danny. He'd killed without remorse before, so one of you had to step in."

Mac saw the troubled looks on both their faces, so he decided to change the subject. Unfortunately, though, it wasn't one that he suspected would make them feel any better. "I got a call about an hour ago from the department shrink. She wants to talk to both of you, in separate sessions, this afternoon."

"C'mon Mac, do we really have to do this now?" Danny asked quickly.

"Danny, I think you would both benefit from talking with someone who hasn't been involved with everything that's gone on, an objective voice if you will."

Danny continued to shake his head in defiance until Lindsay's hand came to rest on his thigh, drawing his attention back to her. "Danny, it's OK. I'd rather have this done with now rather than later. I shot and killed someone, so my session is mandatory, but I really think it would be helpful for you to go to yours, even if it's only a request."

Danny thought about what she said for a minute, and let out a big sigh before answering. "I'm not convinced about that, but I'll do it anyways, for you." His tone conveyed his skepticism, but Lindsay was glad to hear him agree.

"Danny, your appointment is at noon, Lindsay, yours is at 1 pm. Until then, why don't you find Lucy and go relax in your office. I'll make sure one of us will be around in the lab in case you need something, or need someone to watch Lucy for a while." Both Danny and Mac started to get up and move towards the door, but Lindsay remained where she was, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Babe, what is it?"

"I want to see him."

Mac caught on right away, but Danny wanted to clarify what he already suspected. "Who?"

"Shane Casey, I want to see him."

"Linds, I'm not sure that's such a good idea…"

"I need to see him, I need closure, and this is the only way that I'm gonna get it."

Danny looked back at Mac, who had stayed close to the door to give the couple some space, and hoped that his boss would back him up. Instead, Mac just stared blankly back at Danny, knowing that this was something that had to be decided between the couple. He had seen the autopsy photos of Shane Casey, and he knew for a fact that there was nothing there that either Danny or Lindsay had not seen before, but it had still taken Mac a while to convince himself that Shane Casey was really dead.

Mac watched as Danny and Lindsay stared at each other for several long moments, an entire conversation passing between them with looks only. When it was finished, Danny slowly turned to Mac and nodded his head, though he didn't look too happy to be doing it. Mac acknowledged him with a nod of his own and made his way back to his desk, picking up his phone to make a call.

"Sid, it's Mac. Can you prep Shane Casey for a viewing, Danny and Lindsay are on their way down. Thank you. I'll send them right now." He hung up the phone and turned back to the couple. "Sid's got ten minutes free right now, so go ahead."

Danny left the office first, heading for the elevators. Before following him, Lindsay stopped and grabbed Mac's arm. "Thank you," she whispered, and then turned and left Mac's office.

She caught up with Danny just as the elevator doors opened and she jumped onto the empty car with him. They rode down in silence to the autopsy floor and Lindsay looked over at Danny as the doors opened again and he said nothing. She followed closely behind him towards where Sid usually showed bodies to the next of kin, so closely that she ran right into him when he suddenly stopped and turned to face her.

"Sorry Danny."

He gently grabbed her upper arms and waited for her to look up at him. "Are you sure that you want to do this?" With no hesitation, she responded with a "Yes" so Danny nodded and turned once again to lead the way.

They found Sid waiting for them, a fully-covered body on the table before him. "Hi guys, are you ready?" Danny turned to Lindsay and he saw her nod, so he answered "Yes" aloud for the both of them.

Taking his cue, Sid grabbed both sides of the sheet and folded it back enough to reveal Shane Casey's face, the fatal wound filled with putty, but as trained CSIs both Danny and Lindsay could see exactly where the hole had been. They had also done a good job of piecing the back of Casey's head back together, as Danny noticed the faint traces of the wires on his head.

Danny didn't know what the hell he would feel when the sheet was pulled back as he rode down here, but standing there in the moment, all he felt was relief. Relief that Shane Casey couldn't hurt anyone anymore, especially his family; relief that it wasn't all a sick dream, because Casey was in fact dead on the table before him, his pale ashen complexion and his blue lips indicating just that; relief that his entire family was safe and they could now (hopefully) begin to put a difficult year behind them and move on.

Danny was so caught up in what he was feeling that he only noticed that Lindsay was no longer beside him when she hit the door. "Linds?"

She kept going, picking up speed as she went, so Danny muttered out "Sorry Sid" before chasing after her. As he got to the door himself, he heard Sid say something like "It's fine. Go find her, Danny," but he really hadn't been listening.

He ran off in the same direction she had gone, towards the elevators, but wasn't surprised when he couldn't see her anymore. He heard the tail end of a door shutting behind him and he turned, seeing it labelled '_Stairwell C_.' He walked over to it and pushed it open, finding Lindsay hiding in the corner.

As soon as she turned around and verified that it was Danny, Lindsay launched herself at him, clinging to him but only shedding a few tears at first. He caught her and wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"It's OK Lindsay, I'm here. I know you thought that you had to see him, but maybe it was too early."

"No, I did need to see him. I was fine when the sheet was first pulled back, but as I continued to stare at him, it set in that I was the one who killed him, and it was too much to deal with." Her tears increased and she pulled away from Danny a bit to brush them away in frustration. "Why the hell am I crying over him? He's killed so many people with no remorse or guilt and he threatened all our lives and wanted to kill you because you told him the truth. He doesn't deserve this kind of reaction!"

Danny reached out to brush her hair away from her face and lovingly caress her cheeks. "You're crying over him because no matter how crazy he was, this is how people should react when they take another life. I'd be more worried and concerned if you were totally OK with the fact that you shot and killed him. I know it doesn't make sense, but if you were to feel nothing about his death, then you'd be no better than him, and in a way he'd have won by stealing away your humanity. But he hasn't won because your humanity is still intact: you care when you have to hurt or even kill someone. That's the woman that I fell in love with, and the woman that I am still crazily in love with, and I wouldn't want you to change that for anything. It's OK for you to be upset by his death."

Lindsay looked up at him in awe. "How do you always know exactly the right thing to say to me?"

"It's a talent I was born with. What can I say, I'm awesome!" She smacked him lightly on the chest, but then quickly wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Thank you."

"You're more than welcome babe. Now, how's about we head back upstairs and go hang out with Lucy until we have to go and have our heads shrunk?"

"Sure, but I'm not certain that your ego will fit in the elevator."

Danny was taken aback by the light teasing, but he quickly recovered. "Very funny Montana."

"You know you love it Messer." She pulled away from him and shot him a small grin before grabbing his hand and pulling him with her back through the door and to the elevators.

Even after everything that had happened between the two of them in the course of their relationship, Danny was still thankful that the one thing that had never changed for them, good times and bad, was the fact that they could banter back and forth with one another. It was something that had developed fairly quickly between them after they met, and he hoped that years from now, when he was sixty and yelling at Lindsay about the beach or something, they'd still be bantering back and forth.

As they stepped back onto the elevator car, Danny wrapped his arms around his wife and hugged her fiercely, more sure that ever that Lindsay was back.

That was all that really mattered to him.

* * *

**OK, so I hope you liked it, and didn't feel it was too jumpy. Anyways, the next chapter is Danny's turn with the department shrink – should be interesting, no?**

**And before I sign off for another chapter, I just wanted to share some happy news with you all: I am very proud and excited to say that FanFiction dot net and I just celebrated our one year anniversary together! FanFiction dot net and I have had our share of ups and downs in the past year, and though we've had to spend some time away from each other, we're now back together and stronger than ever! We've worked hard on our relationship together, and I know that in addition to our work, our relationship had only been strengthened by the support of you all out there, whether you've wanted us to be together from the beginning or whether you've only recently become a fan of our love affair. On behalf of FanFiction dot net and myself, I just want to say a very heartfelt Thank You! to you all and I hope that we'll spend many more happy years together! :)**

***did I seriously just do that? facepalm***

**Thanks for reading everybody! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Alright, so as promised, it's Danny's turn with the department shrink (I think the proper term is psychologist, but I'm just gonna stick with shrink).**

**I'll apologize in advance if anybody thinks this is unrealistic or anything like that: I know absolutely nothing on the subject, neither from the patient's POV nor that of the doctor's (I'm just a lowly history major, so I'm pretty much stuck in the past on a permanent basis hehe). I'm just making it up as I go, and hoping that people don't hate it!**

**Big thanks go out to all of you who read and those who read and reviewed the last instalment: as always, I'm still shocked that people like what I'm doing!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The Messers were able to spend about an hour and a half together as a family, hanging out and playing in Danny and Lindsay's shared office until it was time for Danny's appointment with the department shrink.

Still unconvinced of how helpful this would be for him, given how much he disliked all the previous times he'd had to visit the shrink, Danny stood outside the door wanting to blow the appointment off and go back upstairs to his wife and daughter. However, he knew both Mac and Lindsay believed that this would be a good thing for him, so for their sake he knocked on the door and waited for a reply.

"Come in."

Danny turned the knob and walked in the door, not expecting what he found on the other side. Instead of the old hag who'd worked in the department since long before he'd ever graduated from the academy, he found a young woman, roughly around his age sitting behind the desk, the soft sounds of classic rock coming out of her computer speakers.

"Hello, you must be my 12 o'clock. Detective Messer, right?"

He approached her and nodded, sticking his hand out at the same time. "Danny's fine."

"Danny it is then," she replied as she took his hand. "Dr. Young, but please call me Liz. Have a seat."

"Thanks. Are you new here?"

"Yes, this is my second month with the NYPD. Dr. Hudson decided to call it quits and travel the world, and I was hand picked by the woman herself to be her successor."

"Congratulations."

"Thank you, but enough about me. We're here to talk about you." She grabbed his file off her desk and shoved it under her notepad as she took a seat across from where he was on the couch.

"You graduated from the academy in 1998, and were hired by Mac Taylor back in 2001?"

"Yeah, that sound's about right."

"So, you've been with the crime lab for close to 10 years now. Are you still enjoying what you do?"

"Yeah. It can be hard sometimes, but we've got a great team and we're good at what we do. These people have become like family to me," Danny answered, a smile overtaking his features as he thought about just how close he'd become with his team.

Liz nodded. "That's great to hear, there's nothing worse that working with a group of individuals who don't gel well together, especially when it's such an important job like you guys do. OK, let's switch gears and get down to what you're really here to talk about: when did your team first encounter Shane Casey?" Liz was more interested in learning how Danny was coping in his private life with what Shane Casey had been trying to do to him, but she knew that she had to ease into that subject. His file stated very clearly that he all but refused to discuss anything about his personal life, and she could see from the minute he walked in that that fact had not changed. Liz knew that she had some work ahead of her.

"Several years ago, we were called to a scene where a young woman at a frat party was found decapitated and hanging upside down from a ceiling fan. We found her head later in a park, buried and wrapped up in a t-shirt. She was the first of several gruesome bodies that we found, each coming with its own custom t-shirt. It took is a while to solve, but eventually we collared Shane Casey, who escaped not long after. He came back and framed one of my colleagues for murder."

"What was the significance of the t-shirts?"

"There were coded messages in them that led us to a court case for his brother Ian. Shane was going around killing people who helped to send his brother to jail for murder. The brother committed suicide in prison and Shane wanted us to prove that his brother was innocent. Instead, we found proof that Ian was guilty, and I was the one who told Shane that. Since then, he's held me responsible for ruining his life, because the brother swore to Shane that he was innocent, right up until he killed himself."

"From what I understand, Shane Casey was sent to prison for his crimes for life, and then he escaped during a Pennsylvania prison riot about a month and half ago. Was that when he first re-appeared on your radar?"

Danny started to fidget on the couch, already itching to leave. He had a nagging feeling that the questions were about to get very personal, very quickly. "No. About a month before that, my wallet, badge and my grandfather's dogtags were stolen from a locker room at the acupuncture place I was at for my back. I found the dogtags at a pawn shop not long after and when I processed them for prints, Shane Casey's name popped up. I just thought it was a fluke at the time."

"Did you tell the rest of your team about what you found?"

"Not at first, but when the riot started at the prison, I told them all."

"So nobody knew about the prints but you for about two and a half months?"

"Just my wife, because she was there talking to me when the i.d. came back."

She nodded, deciding to test the waters with a more personal topic. "You mentioned about your back. I understand that you took a bullet to the back and that it caused you to be temporarily paralysed from the waist down. I see now that you're back on your feet, but do you still have problems with your back?"

"Sometimes it bothers me, but it's getting better." He answered the question, but she could see that he was agitated. She let the more personal topics go for the moment, but it was obvious that he knew she would try and go there again. She felt bad for having to bring up things that he clearly wasn't comfortable talking about with a complete stranger, but there was no way to help him (if he indeed needed her help) without being more thorough.

"So Shane Casey escaped from prison in Pennsylvania and made his way back to New York, all just to get even with you?"

"We didn't know what the hell his endgame was until two days ago, when he trapped me and my family up in a lighthouse on Long Island at gunpoint." Warning bells started going off in Danny's mind. It was one thing to talk about what happened with his wife, a close friend or family member – or hell even the IAB if it meant clearing his name and Lindsay's – but he'd just met this woman not even ten minutes earlier.

"You were on vacation with your family, right? I can't imagine that you and your wife get a lot of time off at the same time, seeing about you both work at the crime lab, so I guess this was your first vacation as a couple, and your first family vacation as well?"

"It still is, and right now, I have no idea why I'm spending it here." Danny got up and started for the door, already starting to plan what he'd tell Lindsay about why he was back in under twenty minutes. He heard Dr. Young call out his name and against his better judgement, he stopped and turned back to face her, crossing his arms over his chest, and waited for her to speak. Talking about Shane Casey or about how Casey's actions affected him, that was OK to talk about. His family, on the other hand, was off-limits.

"This wasn't a mandatory session, and I get from just being with you that you don't want to be here, pretty much at all, so why did you come?" Liz asked pointedly.

"I came because my boss and my wife thought it would be a good idea for me to talk with someone who wasn't involved in what happened?"

"And you don't agree with them?"

"No, and I think I was right after all, so I'm gonna go. Thanks for your time Dr. Young." He started to turn back towards the door, but stopped half way through the motion. This time, he wasn't sure what had made him stop. Liz saw an opportunity to get through to him one last time, and she took it.

"Danny, you didn't think that your wife and your boss were right, and yet here you are. Despite the fact that you seem to think that you only came for them, I think that there's a part of you, however small it may be, that knows they're right, but you're afraid to believe it." She watched him closely for a reaction, and though he was only half-facing her now, she saw an internal battle waging within him. After a few moments, she saw him let out a heavy sigh and finally drop his arms back to his sides. Quietly, he made his way back to the couch and slumped down on it.

"Alright, I'll give it a try, for real this time."

"Thank you Danny, I appreciate your willingness to come back and give this a try. If you need to take a break at anytime, just let me know. I don't want to overwhelm you here."

He nodded, trying to avoid her eyes, and waited in silence for her to ask her next question.

"So he had you, your wife and your daughter trapped up in the lighthouse?"

Danny gulped and nodded. "For a short time, then he let the two of them go because he didn't want them, just me. It made it easier for me to think, because I knew at least that they were safe."

"What happened next? How did you get out of there in one piece?"

"The team showed up. I was backed up against the searchlight and when Mac gave the signal to turn it on, it blinded Casey and I was able to fight him off. We kept fighting until he went through the glass and landed on the edge of the lighthouse, dangling there by one hand. I went out to go lift him up, but he let go and dropped to the rocks below. Nobody thought that he could've survived that, but somehow he did."

"Did you head home right away?"

"No. We were all so exhausted that we went back to our hotel and crashed for the night. None of us really got any sleep that night, and in the morning we caught a train back into the city. We spent the rest of yesterday hanging out in our apartment, thinking about what we could do with the rest of our time off."

"And then Shane Casey showed up in your home."

Danny hesitated before answering, feeling his still raw emotions coming back up to the surface. He kept his eyes trained on the floor in front of him, not wanting her to see the tears that were threatening to fall. "Yeah, our daughter woke me up because she was crying and when I got up to comfort her, I found her in Shane Casey's arms and he pointed a gun at me. He told me he'd come to finish the job and kill me and he kept my daughter in his arms to stop me from getting away again. I told him to do it already, but I asked him, as a last request, to cover up my daughter's face so she wouldn't see anything. He did it and told me…he told me to say goodbye to her. I did and then I waited for him to kill me." Danny couldn't help the shake in his voice.

"But then you're wife showed up and shot him. You didn't see her?"

"No, I was in the room with Casey and she stayed in the hallway. When I left her, she was still asleep, so I didn't think she was gonna wake up until after she heard the gunshot. Plus, my eyes were closed." Danny admitted the last bit with as much shame as he had when he told it to Detective Owens and Mac, and he hung his head.

"Danny, there's no shame in what you did. I'm just wondering, why were you so sure that you were going to die?"

"Because I had no weapon and no way of getting the gun from Casey without jeopardizing my daughter's life."

"You didn't think your wife would come in and do something, or at the very least call someone?"

"She asked me the same thing, and like I told her, I thought she was still asleep and I knew that if I tried to make enough noise to wake her up, Casey would've caught on to what I was doing. The thing is, we knew that Shane Casey was on the loose again just before we left for Long Island, and she wanted to stay behind, but I convinced her that we should go anyway."

Some things were becoming clearer to Liz now, and she knew that to help Danny, she had to pursue her next line of questioning. "Do you blame yourself for Shane Casey coming into your home and threatening the lives of your family?" Danny answered by shaking his head up and down, still refusing to look at her. "Why?"

"Because his grudge was with me and because they love me, they became collateral damage in this whole thing."

"Would you rather that they weren't in your life?"

"No!"

"Alright, did you want Casey to kill you?"

"Of course not! What kinda questions are these?" That question finally got Danny to look up at the doctor, and she saw what he had been trying to hide from her, something that she'd already figured out on her own. As his eyes searched her face for her motives, she could tell that he didn't really look angry about what she was asking him, but defeated and disappointed in himself.

"I'm trying to figure out why part of you gave up and was so willing to accept your death. We barely know each other and I already get the sense that you're a fighter. There's more to it that you trying to protect your daughter."

"I thought I had failed my wife. She told me only hours earlier that she couldn't take feeling like she'd lost me again, and I promised her that I wasn't going anywhere. Then Shane Casey had me at gunpoint and I knew I couldn't keep my promise."

"Did you tell your wife about this?"

"Sort of. Last night we got into it over my broken promise. After we talked it out, she said that it was something that she shouldn't have asked me to do in the first place."

"Maybe she's right, but I sense that you want to keep that promise to her anyways, because if you can't even do that, what kind of man are you really?"

"Yeah I do. We made new promises to each other last night, and I promised her that I wouldn't leave by choice, but that still doesn't feel like it's enough. She and our daughter are the two most important things in my life and I don't want to let either of them down."

"It seems to me that not being with them would be a bigger letdown than you not keeping your word. Don't you think so?"

"I guess."

"Would you forgive your wife for breaking that kind of promise if the alternative was her being dead?"

Danny's eyes re-filled with tears just thinking about the possibility of losing Lindsay like that, but nevertheless, he answered the question without even thinking. "In a heartbeat."

"Danny, why don't you tell me a bit about your wife."

Danny was confused. Wasn't this session supposed to be about him and how he was coping with everything? "Haven't you already read her file?"

"Yes, but that only really tells me about Detective Monroe, now Messer. I want to hear about Lindsay, the woman. From what I understand, your relationship began in the office, which isn't always the right place to find true love, but I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that that's exactly what you two found in each other."

"Yeah. I wasn't looking for anything like that. You talk to anybody who knew me before Lindsay moved here, they'd tell you that I was the type who shunned love, marriage and kids, but she showed me that those three things were exactly what I wanted.

"She was hired about six years ago to replace my friend, so I didn't want to like her a first. I started calling her 'Montana,' her home state, just to piss her off, but as we got to know each other better, I was intrigued by her. She wasn't like any other woman I had ever met before. Our witty banter back and worth quickly turned into full-out flirting, but her past came back up and threw what we had going on off for a while, which hadn't been much. She went home for a while to deal with some stuff and I missed her like crazy. I heard she wasn't doing so well, so I flew out there to go support her. We came back here and nothing had happened yet, but about a month later, we were a couple and I was happier than I'd ever been before. That lasted for about six months before we hit a major rough patch.

"I was in a bad place emotionally and I pushed her away. I made some mistakes and we almost broke up because of it, but we got back together. Things really didn't improve between us after that, for a long time, and then we found out that we were gonna be parents. Our daughter, she didn't save our relationship, she just made us choose what we wanted. We got married about two months before she was born and everything was going great until I got shot. If it hadn't have been for the two of them, I would not have made it through that, but Lindsay, she wouldn't let me give up."

Liz nodded and paused before speaking, noticing how his demeanour had completely changed while he spoke about his wife. Even though some of the things he'd mentioned hinted at some low points in their relationship, he spoke about how they'd come to be together with great fondness and love. "And what about your daughter?"

"Lucy, she's amazing. She's such a happy little girl. I was so convinced that we were having a boy, I was driving people crazy with the names I kept bouncing off them, and when I found out we were having a girl, I was terrified. Then when she was born, it was incredible. I fell in love with her instantly. Sometimes, I still can't believe that she's actually a part of me, and while being parents has been a learning curve for both me and Lindsay, I can't imagine my life without the two of them in it anymore. Anytime I get close to it, I just feel like my life used to be some empty."

A buzzer rang behind Liz, informing her that her time with Danny was almost up. "Well Danny, I'm afraid our time is almost over. I want to thank you for deciding to come back and talk with me, I think you really cleared some things up for yourself today."

"Huh?" Danny knew that she wasn't intentionally being vague, but he seriously had no clue what the hell he'd just 'cleared up' for himself.

"Danny, you had some unnecessary guilt about what transpired last night: you thought you had let your wife and daughter down, but you just proved yourself wrong."

"How exactly did I do that?"

Liz couldn't help but smile at him. "You realized that if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't be a letdown for you given the alternative, and judging by the way you talk about Lindsay and Lucy, there's no way that they blame you for what happened last night, because I'm pretty sure that they're just as crazy about you as you are about them."

Danny smiled genuinely for the first time since he walked in the office. "So am I cured, Doc?"

"There's nothing for you to be cured of. You've been through some traumatic things recently, but only time and relying on the love and support of your family and friends will make that go away."

"OK, but does that mean I have to come see you again?" He couldn't stop himself from teasing her a little more.

"I'm a little offended by that question, but I'm going to ignore it. You worked through what's been bothering you most, so no, you don't have to come see me again, unless you feel that you have some more things you'd like to discuss about something else. However, I do think that it's important that you tell Lindsay what you told me here, especially about you blaming yourself for what happened. I think that getting everything off your chest, even those things that you're more reluctant to share with her, will give you both a solid place to move forward from."

"I will talk with her again about all this – you're completely right about that. But about the other thing: thanks for the offer, but you won't be seeing me again. Once was enough for me." He smiled again just to make sure that she knew he wasn't being completely serious.

"Goodbye Danny," she dismissed him with a wave, not wanting to hear him make fun of her work anymore.

Danny turned and walked to the door, but stopped before reaching for the doorknob. "Hey Liz? he asked, trying to get her attention. She looked up at him, realizing it was the first time he'd actually referred to her by her first name. "Thank you, really. If I ever need to talk to someone in the future, you'll be at the top of my list, right after my wife."

For a skeptic such as him, that admission meant a lot to the young doctor. "You're welcome," she replied with a smile, which he readily returned before exiting the office.

* * *

**Alright, so Danny made it out of there in one piece. Next time it will be Lindsay's turn – will she share the same fate as her husband? Will I ever stop being so coy about what's going to happen next?**

**Here's a hint: one answer is 'Yes', the other is 'No' – but which is which? *insert evil laugh***

**Thanks for reading everybody!**

**P.S. – Yes, I'm fully aware that I'm a dork, but I'm down with it :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**No, your eyes do not deceive you: this is another update, and only 3 days after my last! *shock and awe* It turns out that updates can come faster when you don't fudge around a lot with a chapter *le sigh* Oh well…**

**Just a brief FYI for those who've reviewed: I'm currently playing catch-up on replies, and I'm halfway through right now, but I will get back to you soon!**

**It's Lindsay's turn with the shrink, so I hope you like!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Lindsay had a hard time coping after Danny left for his appointment with the department shrink. One of the first things she'd done after he left was to call her parents and let them know about what had happened. They knew about Shane Casey and his connection to Danny, but when she told them about what had happened at the lighthouse and at her home, they were in complete shock. They'd offered to fly out right away to support her and her family, but Lindsay assured them that everybody was fine and stated that what she really wanted was to get back into her old routine. Instead, Lindsay insisted that they should stick to the week-long stay in New York that they'd already planned in a month's time, and with reservation, her parents had agreed and said goodbye to her, asking her to send their love onto Danny and Lucy and to call them if she needed anything at all. Lindsay promised that she would and then hung up the phone, feeling worse than she did before the call.

As she made her way from her desk to the couch where Lucy was still sitting playing with a toy, Lindsay recalled how she didn't find it that hard to be away from her husband and daughter while her emotions were on hiatus, and the smallest part of her wished she could go back to that. However, she knew that it was impossible for her to turn her defence mechanism on and off at the drop of a hat, no matter how badly she wanted to, or needed to. Lindsay therefore resigned herself to try and hold it together on her own, at least for Lucy's sake. At the moment, though, it wasn't exactly working. Lindsay collapsed on the couch as her tears started in earnest, wanting nothing more than for Danny to re-appear, take her into his arms and let her know that she was safe.

"Why Mommy sad?" Lucy asked, pulling Lindsay out of her reverie. The little girl put her toy down and crawled into her mother's lap, patting at Lindsay's cheeks in an attempt to wipe away the tears streaming down her mother's face. Lindsay forced herself to smile and try to mask what was truly going on.

"Mommy doesn't feel good right now, sweetie, that's why I'm sad."

Lucy thought for a second and quickly scrambled off Lindsay's lap, tottling over to the playpen in the corner. It was obviously to Lindsay that she wanted something from it, but there was no way for Lucy to get it herself.

"What are you looking for, sweetie?"

"Horsey p'ease."

Lindsay got up and crossed the room, getting 'Horsey,' actually a unicorn, and handed it to Lucy. "T'ank you. Up p'ease."

Lindsay was a bit confused by what Lucy was doing, but she decided to go with it. She picked Lucy up and carried her back to the couch, sitting down once more with Lucy in her lap.

"Horsey make bett-er," Lucy said as she shoved her toy out to her mother.

"Oh sweetie, that's very nice of you, but Horsey only has the special power to make you feel better." Lindsay's tears were renewed at her daughter's thoughtfulness and the innocence with which she still saw the world. Lucy, however, took the tears as a bad sign and she looked away and jutted her bottom lip out, thinking that she'd made her mother feel worse.

Lindsay noticed the change in Lucy and she felt horrible. Thinking quickly, she came up with something that would make her daughter feel better again. "Maybe Lucy could make Mommy better."

Lucy looked up, eager to help. "How Mommy?"

"With a big kiss and a hug."

Without answering, Lucy threw herself back at Lindsay, reaching up and wrapping her tiny arms around Lindsay's neck and squeezing before pulling herself up to lay a sloppy kiss on Lindsay's cheek. Lindsay hugged her back just as fiercely and she felt the tiniest of weights being lifted from her. "Thank you Lucy, Mommy feels better already!" This time, there wasn't a trace of a lie in Lindsay's words.

Just then, there was a knock at the office door. Hoping it was Danny back from the shrink's office already, Lindsay was a little disappointed to see that it was Flack. She waved him inside and he looked over at the mother-daughter pair with a wide grin on his face. It didn't take Lindsay long to realize that he was grinning because he could see with his own two eyes that she really was getting back to her old self.

"Hey Don."

Lucy let go of Lindsay's neck and whipped around in her mother's arms, wanting to share a very important piece of news with their new visitor.

"Fwack! 'ucy make Mommy bett-er! See!"

Putting on a bit of a show, Lindsay plastered an over-exaggerated smile on her face, wishing that all that was bothering her could be so easily fixed. Flack, catching on easily, followed Lindsay's lead.

"Wow Lucy, that's a special talent you got there. Great job!"

Lucy clapped for herself, happy that she had helped her mommy not to be sad anymore. Getting off of Lindsay's lap, Lucy grabbed Horsey and proceeded to tell her all about what she had just done, distracting herself for the moment and giving the adults a chance to talk.

"How are ya Linds?"

Lindsay got up from the couch and moved closer to Flack, not wanting Lucy to overhear anything that could spoil her happiness. "I'm doing OK, Don, it's not all for show. I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything that's gone on recently, but I'm so glad that I'm not alone in this: I have friends and family that I can count on."

Flack reached out and pulled Lindsay into a hug, sensing that she needed one at the moment. "You got that right, anything you need me to do, I'm there. I was real worried about you yesterday, but I'm glad to see you're back. It's not an easy thing to take somebody's life, especially when the circumstances are so personal, so if you ever need someone to talk to, somebody other than Danny or a shrink, just call me OK?"

"Thanks, that really means a lot to me." Though neither she nor Danny knew for certain what had happened in the basement of the warehouse where they'd tracked down Jessica Angell's killer to, based on what Danny had seen there and later shared with Lindsay, they always guessed that Flack had gotten his own justice for his girlfriend's death.

"So where is Danny? When I came over hear, I ran into Mac and he said that Danny had an appointment with Dr. Young at noon. It's almost one now and he's still not back?"

"I don't know, I thought he'd be there for maybe ten minutes at the most before walking out."

"Ten minutes? I'd have said two before Danno booked it." The two shared a laugh before Flack spoke again. "Look, why don't you head on up there now so you're not late and I'll stay here with Lucy until Danny gets back."

Nodding, Lindsay turned back towards the couch and saw that Lucy was now watching her and Flack. "OK sweetie, you be good while Mommy's gone. Daddy will be back soon but until he comes back, you can have fun with Uncle Flack."

Lucy shoved Horsey off her lap and slid off the couch, running over to Lindsay and throwing herself at her legs. "No go Mommy!"

Since it was getting closer to Lucy's naptime, Lindsay had been expecting her to get a little cranky, but she also started to wonder if maybe Lucy was upset because they had told her at the beginning of their vacation that it would just be Mommy, Daddy and Lucy time, and now in the past day and a half she'd become more like a hot potato, getting passed around between a lot of different people. Lindsay felt horrible once again, but this time there was nothing she could really do about it.

Sensing that a tantrum was probably coming on, Flack stepped forward and picked Lucy up, trying to calm her down. "Hey Lucy, you and me will have lots of fun while Mommy and Daddy are gone, we can do whatever you want."

"No Fwack, want Mommy!" Lucy stated as the tears started streaming down her face.

"I'm sorry honey, but I have to go," Lindsay said as she leaned forward and kissed Lucy's head. Lucy grabbed for her mother and locked her arms around Lindsay's neck. Lindsay reached up and pried Lucy's hands away, stepping back at the same time to make sure that Lucy didn't try it again.

"Noooo! Mommy!" Lucy's face was beat red and she tried to fight off Flack with her tiny fists and feet, but he just tightened his grip enough to make sure that she didn't fall out of his arms. Lindsay looked up at Flack apologetically, but he shook his head and mouthed the word 'Go'. With one last look at her daughter, Lindsay left the office, the screams of "MOMMY!" following her all the way into the elevator. It took a lot out of Lindsay to not just run back and comfort Lucy, but she knew deep down that she needed to take care of herself before she could really be of any use to Lucy. At the moment, however, that wasn't enough to stop Lindsay from feeling like a bad parent. Thankful that she was alone in the elevator, she let the tears fall fast and hard down her face.

Getting off the elevator and walking down the hall to Dr. Young's office, Lindsay got a handle on her tears, not really wanting to start off her appointment already a crying mess. About six feet from the door, she watched as it opened, revealing a smiling Danny. He closed the door and caught sight of her quickly and she watched as his smile faded after seeing the look on her face.

"Babe, what's wrong?" he asked as he closed the distance between them and wrapped her up in his arms.

"Lucy just had a meltdown when I left. She didn't want me to go and she was screaming for me." The tears that Lindsay had fought to get a handle on started anew.

"She'll be OK. I'm sure whoever has her got her to calm down. You didn't do anything wrong," he soothed her with his words as he stepped away from her to wipe her tears away. Lindsay knew he was right, so she took a few calming breaths before another thought came to mind. "You stayed the whole hour and you came out with a smile on your face. What's the deal, because you always tell me that all shrinks are quacks?"

Danny could see that she was looking for a bit of a distraction, and he was more than happy to provide her with one. "Well, maybe I was wrong, just this one time." His grand ego earned him a small smile, and Danny decided to lean forward and surprise Lindsay by kissing her sweetly.

Pulling away, she looked at him, puzzled. "What was that for?"

"First off, I don't need an excuse to kiss my lovely wife, but I just wanted you to know that I love you and that we can get through this. Now, go talk to the shrink and be sure to call her 'sir.'" Before Lindsay could do anything, Danny had kissed her on the forehead and started to run down the hall away from her.

"You better make tracks, cowboy!" she called out to him before shaking her head at his antics. Heading for the door, she knocked and heard a quick "Come in!" before she opened it and poked her head in.

"I hope I'm not late," she said to the young woman in the room. She'd never been to see the NYPD shrink, but she'd heard Danny refer to her as an 'old batty woman,' so Lindsay quickly guessed that they weren't the same doctors.

"No, you're right on time Detective Messer. I'm Dr. Young, but please call me Liz."

"Lindsay, then," she replied as she reached out and shook the doctor's hand.

"Please, have a seat on the couch over there." Liz took Lindsay's file from her desk and placed it under her notepad as she took the chair across from the couch once more. Looking at Lindsay, Liz could see that she'd been crying very recently, a few tears still visible in her eyes. "Are you sure that you're OK to talk now, or would you rather do this at another time?"

"No, no, I'm OK to do this now. My daughter just had a meltdown when I left and it got to me. That's why I was later getting down here than I had hoped."

"Don't worry about it. That's got to be hard for any parent to deal with." Even in the short span of time they'd spent together, Liz was starting to get the sense that Lindsay would be another tough patient. While Danny was a skeptic, his emotions were very close to the surface and he was fairly easy to read. From what she had learned from Lindsay's file, Liz knew that Lindsay had an extensive background in talking to shrinks, but Liz could see that that experience had made Lindsay much more guarded with her emotions and not so willing to talk about them to complete strangers. "OK, your husband Danny gave me the background information on Shane Casey, so why don't you start with what happened at the lighthouse. I understand that you and your daughter were let go from captivity because Casey didn't want either of you, just Danny?"

"Yes. The two of them ran up the lighthouse stairs ahead of me, so I went chasing after them and when I got to the top, Casey had just revealed himself. The last time he'd seen Danny, he was single so Casey was trying to get introductions from Danny for me and Lucy. Then he said Lucy and I could leave, but I told him to go to hell. He almost made us stay after that, but Danny shoved Lucy into my arms and begged me to get her and myself to safety."

"Why did you tell him to go to hell?"

"It was a pretty stupid thing to do, but I was tired of him screwing around with our lives. He took Danny's wallet and badge and has been using them to taunt us. He'd try and use Danny's ATM card, knowing full well that Danny would cancel it and that we'd have video of him trying to use the card. He's been sadistic like that since we first met him about five years ago. More importantly, I didn't want to leave Danny alone with him. If it had been just me, I probably would've stayed up there with him."

"Alright, so you and Lucy were back on the ground. Could you hear what was going on back up in the lighthouse?"

"No, but I thought since the rest of the team had arrived, Danny would have a good chance. I was hoping not to hear any gunshots, but then I heard the sound of glass breaking and I wasn't sure what had happened. The next couple of minutes were agonizing, but then Danny appeared, limping and a little roughed up, but alive. That's all I really cared about."

Liz nodded. "Of course. Danny said that you stayed on Long Island for the night, but you decided to come home yesterday instead of staying for the rest of your vacation time."

"Yeah. We all slept restlessly that night and our hearts weren't in it anymore, so we decided to spend the rest of the week in the 'safety' of our home." Lindsay couldn't help the cynicism that accompanied the word 'safety'.

"How did you discover that something wasn't right last night?"

"I woke up when I sensed that Danny had left our bed. I heard Lucy crying, so I was waiting for him to come back so I could ask if Lucy was OK. Then I heard Shane Casey speak. At first I wasn't sure it was him, but when he started talking again, I knew it was him."

"What was your first reaction, other than shock?"

"I started to reach for a phone, but when I heard that he was using Lucy as leverage so he could kill Danny, I decided to get my gun instead."

"Were you planning on killing Shane Casey or trying to detain him?"

"At that point, I had no idea what I was walking into, but when Danny asked Casey to cover Lucy's face so she wouldn't watch him die right in front of her, I came to the conclusion that I had to kill Shane Casey or he was going to kill Danny. I made my way quietly to Lucy's room and I peaked in at the right time, so I wasn't caught.

"Casey had Lucy on his right hip and a gun in his left hand, trained on my husband. He made Danny say goodbye to our daughter and then said his own goodbyes to Danny. After that, I quickly moved into the doorway, aimed and fired off one round before Casey could react. It was a kill shot to the head and he fell to the ground, taking Lucy down with him. She was OK, though, just a little bump from the fall, but she was terrified."

"As I'm sure you were too."

Somehow, Lindsay had managed to keep a lid on her emotions as she retold her story for the first time while not on autopilot, but with Liz's false assumption, Lindsay came undone. She didn't answer the question, just throwing her face into her hands and starting to sob. Liz, unsure of what she had done, reached back to her desk to grab the box of tissues and she placed them right beside Lindsay's leg on the couch. "What's wrong Lindsay?"

"That's just it: I should've been terrified, but I wasn't, I was calm and focused. I wanted to be terrified, I wanted to go run up and grab Lucy and Danny and hug them for dear life and never let go, but I was a friggin' robot!" Lindsay blurted out, swiping angrily at her face with her hands to clear her tears.

"Why?"

"It's some stupid defence mechanism. The same thing happened when I was a teen: some huge traumatic situation happens, I shut down emotionally and do whatever is needed of me, and then when my body decides that I can be in control again, I finally get to breakdown like everybody else."

"That doesn't sound stupid to me Lindsay. I bet most people would want to be able to do that, or subconsciously to that, in traumatic situations."

"Well, they can have it. They can find out the hard way, like I did, that just because your emotions are on hiatus, it doesn't mean that you can escape them – you just get to accumulate them for later. I could see how much I was hurting Danny by pulling away from him and Lucy, but there was nothing for me to do about it. I explained what was going on later when I could actually feel again, and he said that it was OK and he forgave me, but…" Reaching a very private struggle that had been nagging Lindsay since the night before, she hesitated to continue.

Liz, however, thought that she knew what Lindsay was going to say, so she said it for the distraught woman. "…But you still feel like you failed Danny and Lucy when they needed you most, even after saving their lives, because you couldn't be there for them right away? That they blame you for abandoning them for those few hours and they couldn't possibly forgive you for that? Liz was starting to sense a theme going on with the Messers, something that they couldn't see for themselves because they were too close to it. It was only because she was an outsider that Liz could see just how unnecessary their fears were.

Lindsay looked over at Liz in complete and utter shock. "How did you know that?"

"I saw it on your face." Liz decided to lie, trying to see if Lindsay was willing to let her in a little more.

"Liz, I know that you're not telling me the whole truth here. I don't wear my emotions for the whole world to see: that's my husband, not me. People have always had a hard time reading me, hell it took Danny a while to figure me out at all, and sometimes he's still got to work at it. Nobody has ever read me like a book after knowing me for about a half hour, so that was partly a guess and partly based on what my husband told you."

Liz found herself suddenly on the defensive, and she started to backtrack a little. "While I can't go into the specifics of what he said to me, let's just assume that you're right and move on from there. I'm not trying to bullshit you here or trick you, but I'm picked up on your guardedness and I was trying to gauge your willingness to open up if the topic got even more personal."

"Liz, you've read my file, so you know this isn't my first rodeo with a shrink. I'm guarded, yes, but unlike my husband, I believe that talking with a professional is helpful, so long as both parties are honest, upfront, and willing."

Liz now felt pretty horrible about what she had done. "Lindsay, I am so sorry if I offended you…"

Lindsay reached out and put her hand on Liz's arm. "It's OK, Liz, honest. I understand that you sometimes have to be a little…creative when dealing with difficult patients, but it's not needed with me." Lindsay's eyes conveyed her sincerity, and Liz was more than happy to take the out and move forward.

"I'll ask you to think of this scenario for me, Lindsay: what if you were the one who found Shane Casey in your home holding Lucy and you were the one he wanted dead. What if Danny came to your rescue and killed him, but then pushed you away. How would you react?"

"I would be hurt, but I'd keep trying to get through to him."

"Now, what if he broke down eventually and tried to explain to you that he couldn't embrace you and cry over what had happened because his own body and mind were keeping him focused on what he needed to do. Would you be able to understand and forgive his actions then? Would you believe him?"

"Yes."

"OK, now think about Danny's actions and your own hypothetical ones: is there anything different between them?"

"No," Lindsay replied almost instantaneously. She started shaking her head, surprised at her own foolishness. The answer was so simple and yet she couldn't arrive at it without the guidance of another person. "You must think Danny and I are a real pair, because I suspect that you had to pull the same role reversal technique with Danny."

While Liz didn't out rightly respond to Lindsay's statement, she knew that Lindsay already had her answer. "I'm not here to judge. Talking with the both of you, I can see that although to the casual observer you may seem like two completely different people, underneath you're very similar. Family is the most important thing to both of you and you're both terrified of letting your loved ones down. In this case, you didn't let Danny or Lucy down because you were able to eliminate the one thing that was determined to tear your family apart. More importantly, I think the both of you need to stop being so worried about letting the other down. You both seem to love each other very deeply and I'm certain that it's gonna take a lot more than that to break you two apart. From the way Danny was talking about you and your relationship, the two of you have been through a lot together, and you've gotten through it all, _together_."

Lindsay nodded, and a hint of a smile appeared on her lips. "When we first met, I really didn't like him, but then we became friends as we started to get to know each other. I was sure he had a crush on me after a while, but he had the reputation of being the lab heartthrob, never looking for a serious relationship. I started to fall for him, but I was afraid that I was going to be just another conquest, so I pushed him away. He didn't give up on trying to be with me and when he flew out to Montana on no sleep to come support me, I started to see that he and I could be something. It hasn't always been easy and sometimes it's been downright painful to stay together, but I'll forever be grateful that I took a chance on a long-shot." Lindsay beamed with pride now, still surprised sometimes by just how far they'd come as a couple in only 3 years.

Liz hated to change the subject on Lindsay, but there was more that the two of them had to discuss. "Now that we've cleared that up, let me get back to the real reason why you're here: how do you feel about the fact that you shot and killed Shane Casey?"

Lindsay let out a slow breath, feeling her emotions come back to the surface. "I'm conflicted. Part of me is glad that he's dead because he can't hurt anybody anymore, but a bigger part of me is torn up about having taken another life. When I saw him lying on the table in the morgue, the full weight of my actions just hit me like a ton of bricks."

"So you saw him after he was killed and after your emotions kicked back in? Did you want to see him?"

"Yes. I needed closure for my own mind, to know that there was no way he could come after my family again. I just wasn't expecting to be so affected by the sight of him lying on the table. I've shot suspects before, both wounding and killing them, and I've been affected by my actions, but never like that."

"It's because this time it was more than just about your job, it was your entire life at stake, yours and those of the people you love the most."

"I realize that now."

"Do you regret your actions?"

"No, because the alternative would have been much worse." There was no doubt in Lindsay's voice.

"Well Lindsay, I have no control over what IAB will rule about your actions, but I'm clearing you for duty, so you can get back to work once your vacation's over. You made a clear and rational choice, but one that you're not taking lightly after the fact. That's all anybody can ask for in a situation such as this."

"Thank you, I appreciate that. I'm just looking to get back to normal, it's been a hell of a past couple of days. It's been a hell of a year really."

"I'll bet: marriage, parenthood, caregiver, and then add Shane Casey into the mix. It seems like you've been coping well though. You didn't hear this from me, but Danny made it very clear that it was your love and support, as well as that of your daughter, that got him through his temporary paralysis, but I'm sure you already know that."

"Yeah, he was alive so I was OK whether he could walk again or not. Danny, on the other hand, had got it into his head that I wouldn't want him unless he was able to walk. It took some convincing on my part but he eventually understood where I was coming from. One night months later, I found him in Lucy's room, holding her in his arms as he stood, for the first time, across the room from me and I just lost it. Everything finally seemed to be settling down for us, but little did I know what was coming next."

"Well, I have every confidence that you and Danny will be able to make it through all this, and whatever else life decides to throw at you two."

"You know what? I think you're right." Lindsay smiled once more, truly agreeing with Liz's assessment.

Once again, the buzzer sounded, reminding Liz that their time was drawing to a close. "Alright Lindsay, our time is almost up. Is there anything else that you wanted to talk about while we're here?"

"Not that I can think of."

"OK, well I'll be clearing you for duty because I don't see any big issues for you about this, but just to be on the safe side, I want you to come see me once you've returned to work, just to make sure that you're OK. If nothing else had come up and you're feeling good about being back to work, it'll be a very short session, and then you'll be done with me, OK?"

"That sounds good, I'll let you know when I can come see you once I get my schedule." Lindsay stood and reached out her hand. "Thank you Liz."

Taking Lindsay's hand, Liz shook it firmly and dared to go back to another subject. "Please let me apologize again for my deceit…"

Lindsay's grip tightened, making Liz pause and glance over at the detective. "There's nothing to apologize for. You're a good doctor and you're great at what you do." Without another word, Lindsay let go of Liz's hand and headed for the door, leaving Liz to think that Lindsay hadn't been serious about what she said and that she was only humouring the doctor and trying to be nice.

Liz started to head back to her desk when she saw Lindsay turn around and face her once more to speak.

"You know how I know that you're great at what you do? You got my husband to rethink his opinion that all shrinks are nothing but quacks, and that, Dr. Young, is a miracle." A huge grin spread across Lindsay's face, and Liz couldn't help but join in.

"I appreciate that. Goodbye Lindsay, now get out of my office and go spend some time with your family, doctor's orders."

"Goodbye Liz." In one swift move, Lindsay had opened, walked through, and shut the door behind her, leaving Liz all by herself to think for the first time since coming to the NYPD that she was actually being of help to the people here. Maybe she was cut out for this job after all, and she would be forever remember the Messers for helping to restore her confidence in her own abilities. With that thought in mind, she sat down at her desk once more and started typing out reports on her two patients.

* * *

**Phew, we're done with the therapy sessions now! I'm glad for both Danny and Lindsay, but for me too - this stuff is hard to make up when you seriously have no idea what you're doing! *dramatic pause* Wait, isn't that what I do with every story: make it up as I go along while being completely clueless? :P**

**Alright, let's get back to serious business - ****Next time, on **_**Weathering the Storm**_**: the Messers finally leave the lab, and Danny and Lindsay get a chance to talk about what they each discovered in their sessions with Dr. Liz Young.**

***is it just me, or did that sound oddly like a commercial for a soap opera?* **

**OK, now I'm just rambling, and boring the heck out of everyone!**

**Thanks for reading everybody! :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Alright, so this is the chapter I teased last time, where the Messers finally get out of the crime lab and Danny and Lindsay get a chance to talk again. I want to thank each and every one of you readers and you reviewers (I finally caught up! *pats self on back*) for your continued support – we're now on chapter 10 of 15 for this one, so I hope you'll like where this is going!**

**Now, before I tell you to enjoy this chapter, there are two things that you need to know about it:**

**1) It took on a mind of its own when I was writing it, particularly when I got to the ending.**

**2) The rating on this one is going up a bit, to probably a firm 'T'.**

**Now please enjoy!**

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Heading back to their office, Lindsay felt like a significant weight had been lifter off her, and she was eager to see if Danny felt the same way. She'd managed to step into the office and say hello to Danny before Mac popped into the door, jacket on and kit in hand, as well as bringing a piece of paper and a set of keys.

"Good, you're both here. I've just been called out to a scene, so I won't be back for a while, but I didn't want you to have to stick around here for the rest of the day. Here's the information for your hotel room, it's about 10 blocks from here and it's a nice place. They're expecting you and already know to send me the bill, so please go easy on the room service," Mac said, only half-joking. He handed the paper to Lindsay and tossed the keys at Danny. "Take one of the Avalanches for the next couple of days, it'll let you guys get around easier with Lucy, since you won't be back in your own neighbourhood for the time being."

"Thanks Mac, we really appreciate it," Danny replied.

"It's the least I can do for you guys. As soon as I get the report, I'll call you and let you know what's happening, OK?"

Lindsay nodded in response. "Thanks again Mac."

Waving it off, Mac turned and hurried out the door on his way to the elevators. Alone once again, Lindsay turned to face Danny again, smiling shyly. "Hi…again."

"Hi."

"Was Lucy OK when you got back up here?" All through her session with Liz, Lindsay had worried that Lucy was still upset about her leaving, but hopeful that if Flack couldn't calm her down, then Danny could.

"Yeah, she was fine when I got here. She was already asleep in the playpen when I walked in, and Flack told me all about what had happened. He got her to quiet down by grabbing Horsey and making it talk to her, let her know that it was OK and that when she woke up, both Mommy and Daddy would be back. She stopped crying after that, but she'd already exhausted herself, so she was out real quick. I started to thank him for what he did, but he brushed it off. He was only here for another five minutes before he got a call from his captain asking where the hell he was, so he hurried downstairs to get the guy off his back."

"Good." She smiled genuinely at him before getting up the courage to ask the question that she was itching to get off her chest. "Did you actually find that the session with Liz helped you? I feel a lot better after talking to her, and when you first came out of her office, before you noticed that I was a wreck, it looked like you were smiling."

"Yeah, like I said, I'm not so sure anymore that all shrinks are quacks. You and Mac were right, talking to someone else helped me clear some of the crap outta my head. I almost walked out on her, but she was right, there was a small part of me that wanted to believe that she could help me. It was kinda hard, but I'm glad that I stuck with it." Danny wanted to elaborate more on just what Liz had helped him with, but he knew now wasn't really the time, nor the place. Since they were finally going to be leaving lab, he decided to wait until they had a little more privacy before delving back into this.

Lindsay stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Danny. "So am I." Stretching up, she met Danny's lips in a loving kiss before pulling away again and smiling up at him. "How's about we get all our stuff together and get the heck out of here? Frankly, my back will not take another night on that couch."

Danny smiled down at her. "I thought you'd never ask."

Pulling out of his embrace, Lindsay set off to go collect all the miscellaneous things that they'd pulled out of their suitcase in the course of the day. Watching her for an extra moment, Danny smiled once more before heading over to the playpen to see about packing it up again all while moving Lucy and keeping her asleep.

* * *

After an hour and a half ordeal of packing, dealing with a cranky Lucy who'd been woken from her nap, loading the car, fighting through rush hour traffic to only go ten blocks, unloading the car once more and dealing with the now fully awake and antsy Lucy, they'd managed to check into the hotel and get into their room in one piece.

It was quite a spacious room, with a tiny kitchenette and a sofa, and Lucy was more than happy to be allowed to run around the place and explore it to her heart's content while her parents brought all their stuff in and set up the playpen once again as Lucy's bed.

Settled in the room, Danny decided to run out and go grab a pizza for dinner from a local place that he knew was only two blocks away and this time, Lindsay was OK with being separated from him. He returned twenty minutes later with two small pizzas and a bottle of apple juice for Lucy. Seeing the food stacked up in his arms, Lindsay was reminded of something that she'd wanted to ask him before he left.

"How did you manage to sneak that past the front desk? Hotels usually frown up guests bringing in outside food, and the elevator was across the foyer. You had to walk by the front desk to get to it."

"That's why I took the stairs. It was only a quick dash by the front desk, and they were too busy trying to check in another guest to notice me." He smirked at her, completely satisfied with himself and before she could respond, Lucy came toddling over to see what was in his hands. "Hey Lucy, you want some pizza for dinner?"

Despite her young age, and the fact that she'd only had pizza a couple of times in her life, Lucy was already a huge fan of the food, so she nodded enthusiastically and started to jump up and down.

"Alright, you jumping bean, let's go wash your hand so you can eat your pizza." Lindsay scooped the little girl up and carted her off to the bathroom, leaving Danny to scrounge in the cabinets for some dishes and utensils. He managed to luck out, finding plastic cups, utensils and paper plates all bundled together, apparently remnants from a previous guests' stay. Since the cups and utensils came from an open bag, Danny quickly rinsed off three cups and a fork and knife in hot water and poured some apple juice in one of the cups for Lucy, filling the other two with water for himself and Lindsay. Opening up the bag of paper plates, he took three out and started to dole the pizza out. He started out with a piece of cheese for Lucy, cutting it up into small pieces for her and leaving her with the fork to try and eat with. Next he opened the other box and picked out two slices of pepperoni for himself and one for Lindsay.

Seeing Lucy come running back out into the room in his direction with Lindsay hot on her heels told him that they were ready to eat. Lindsay came over and grabbed the cups for him and carried them over to the couch, setting them down on the coffee table, hoping that Lucy wouldn't knock them over in her excitement. Danny followed his wife over there and the little family enjoyed an informal dinner in their strange new surroundings. They at in silence, with the exception of Lucy who babbled away about her pizza to Horsey.

After dinner, they pulled out the limited number of toys and activities they'd packed for Lucy for their original vacation plans and kept her entertained for the rest of the evening until it was time for her to go to bed. Between the two of them, they managed to get Lucy bathed with a minimum amount of fuss (or water all over the floor and themselves.) Continuing to work together, they got her all dried off and into her pyjamas as she started to nod off. By the time Danny placed her in the playpen, she was deep asleep. He made sure to place Horsey near her before heading over to the couch to go join Lindsay.

As he sat down on the couch with her, Danny knew that he couldn't put off talking to her about his therapy session anymore. Lindsay deserved to know what happened there, and he needed to be completely honest with her is they were to have the chance to move on with nothing to hold them back.

"Linds, there's something that happened today when I was with Liz that you need to know, something that I was reluctant to tell you about." Danny made a point of looking at Lindsay as he said this, wanting to see her reaction. He saw surprise register on her face, but her eyes were clearly worried, afraid not only of what he had to say but also of why he hadn't told her before. He choose not to wait for her response, instead letting his confession fall from his lips.

"Please don't be angry with me, I know I should have told you this before, but after what happened last night, I was scared that you might push me away again if I said it. Now I know just how wrong I was about that, Liz helped me to see that." Taking a deep breath, Danny finally admitted the one thing that had been bothering him the most. "I've been blaming myself for what happened with Shane Casey because if you weren't in love with me, you wouldn't have been involved in this at all. He was after me and only me, and you and Lucy got wrapped up in all this because you love me."

Lindsay started to open her mouth to protest, but Danny placed a finger to her lips to keep her silent. "There's something else that I have to say, but I need to say it before you say anything, OK?"

Lindsay looked at him and nodded, tears starting to gather in her eyes.

"I know we already made new promises to each other, ones we are both realistically capable of keeping, and I know that you already admitted that the original promise was unfair to ask, but I still feel like I should be able to keep that one to you. I was so sure that I was letting you down because I couldn't promise you that I wasn't going anywhere, but Liz helped me see that the bigger letdown, actually the biggest letdown of all, would be not being here with you and Lucy anymore."

Danny finished speaking and looked over at Lindsay. Though her eyes were still wet from her unshed tears, her face didn't betray what she was thinking, and that fact scared Danny more than a little bit. "Please Lindsay, tell me what you're thinking, no matter what it is."

Lindsay took a deep breath before going ahead with her own confession. "When I was with Liz, she accurately guessed that I still felt like I had failed you and Lucy because I pushed you away right after killing Shane Casey, right when you both needed me the most. I couldn't believe how you could ever forgive me, or even believe my reasons, but Liz showed me that if our roles were reversed, I would've reacted just as you did: with acceptance, understanding and forgiveness."

Danny stared at his wife, tears filling his eyes as well. "Linds, how could you think that? Of course I'd forgive you!"

"I could think that just like you could think that I wouldn't forgive you for breaking that outlandish promise – I know I freaked out at you about it, but Liz is right, the alternative was something that I would've never forgiven you for."

Danny let out a heavy sigh and closed his eyes, relief starting to wash over him. However, Lindsay still had one more thing that she needed to say to him. Taking his face between her hands, she waited until his eyes opened again before she spoke.

"I need you to understand something Danny: I never have, nor will I ever blame you for what happened with Shane Casey. It's not your fault that he was a crazed killer with absolutely no remorse for his actions – you didn't turn him into that. And for as much as you think that he was only after you, he wasn't because you and I are a packaged deal. As far as I'm concerned, if he wanted you dead, then he was coming after me too. Loving someone means that you take on both the good and the bad stuff that comes along with them. While I never imagined that Shane Casey would try to come after you three years after he'd been sent to prison for the rest of his life, I accepted that there was a connection between the two of you that he might try to exploit sometime in the future. You don't get to apologize for me loving you, because without you, I wouldn't be who I am today. And you can't do it for Lucy either because she wouldn't be here without the love that you and I share. You and me, we're forever, and _nothing_ is going to change that."

Danny smiled at Lindsay, feeling a weight being lifted from his heart. "Thank you babe. Liz tried to convince me of the same thing, but I guess that I just needed to hear it coming from you."

"You're more than welcome babe." Lindsay let go of his face and closed the distance between their bodies, wrapping her arms around his stomach and moulding herself into his side as he kissed her temple and closed his arms around her, holding her tightly to him. They sat in silence for a while, content to just be close to one another.

As the silence continued, Lindsay found her mind to be drifting off towards the next obstacle before them: the IAB.

"Where do we go from here Dan?" she asked, hoping he could give her an answer.

"I don't know babe, but wherever it is, we're going there together," he answered honestly, unsure of what had brought on that question. Glancing down at her, he saw worry written all over her face. He asked his next question almost certain that he knew what was now weighing on her mind. "Are you worried about the IAB 'cause you shouldn't be. You didn't do anything wrong."

"A little bit. I know that I did the right thing, but I still want them to say the same thing. Mac was right today, there's not a lot of evidence to corroborate our version of what happened. One little detail interpreted differently could change what they determine."

"Linds, there's no reason for us to lie about what happened. Frankly, if the IAB think otherwise, I say fuck 'em – you and I know the truth and so do our friends. Everybody else can kiss my ass."

Lindsay chuckled at his brashness and leaned up to kiss him. She surprised herself a bit as she deepened the kiss and made no attempts to end it, a familiar feeling beginning to build up in the pit of her stomach. A small voice in the back of her mind reminded her that Lucy was no more than ten feet away from them, but she told that voice to shut up and focused all her attention on Danny.

For his part, Danny wasn't really thinking about anything else besides the feeling of Lindsay's lips on his own. He realized in that moment just how close he came to being lost to her, and he pulled her into his lap, needing her to be even closer to him. His heart started to race as her hands started to tug at his shirt, wanting it off him but not willing to tear her lips away from his just yet.

Their passion was quickly escalating, and it caught Danny a bit off guard. He reluctantly pulled away from her and kept her at a distance, needing to think for a moment. He stared at her, trying to see what was going on in her mind, and this time her emotions were written all over his face, and he knew that she was seeing the same thing written all over his face. In the past several moments, they'd both come to realize just how close they came to losing each other, and they both needed the physical reassurance that they were both still here, and that none of this was a dream.

Knowing that they both needed this so badly, Danny reached out for the hem of her shirt, yanking it over her head before tossing it behind him towards the bed. With no hesitation, Lindsay pulled his shirt off and threw it in the same general direction as her own, pulling herself closer to his chest and crashing her lips onto his once more.

Their mouths had continued to duel for dominance for the past several minutes, hands now joining in to run all over the newly exposed flesh, when the voice in Lindsay's head chimed in again and told her that they really should move this over to the bed. She decided not to ignore the voice this time, knowing that it was right: they could have a little more privacy there and there would be less of a chance of them waking Lucy up. It was Lindsay's turn to reluctantly break the kiss and she started to get off Danny's lap, holding out her hand to pull him up and guide him over to the bed.

Danny took it and followed her closely, not wanting to be too far from her. About a foot from the bed, she turned and faced him, letting her hands graze up his chest until she looped them around his neck to pull him down in another kiss. Danny kept his own hands busy by undoing her pants and shoving them down her legs, leaving her standing only in her underwear. He started at his belt to get rid of his pants too, but her hands came between them and stopped his, shaking a bit as she undid his belt and pants and let them drop to the floor.

Danny walked them back towards the bed and gently pushed her into a sitting position on the edge, taking his time to remove her last articles of clothing before discarding his own and joining her on the bed.

Together they manoeuvred themselves under the sheets and started to move together in a familiar rhythm. There was no urgency to their movements, instead taking their time to show one another just how much they meant to each other. As Danny hovered over his wife, his movements started to slow and he felt tears spring to his eyes. Lindsay noticed the change and pulled Danny down on top of her, knowing that they both needed the close contact. They both shed a few tears as they surrounded each other, and after a moment or two to collect themselves, they started to move in tandem once more. It wasn't long before he noticed that Lindsay was close to coming undone, and since Danny knew he wasn't that far behind her, he sealed his lips to hers to quiet any sounds from escaping and increased his pace, sending Lindsay over the edge and following right behind her himself.

Coming down from their highs, Danny rolled himself to Lindsay's side and noticed her begin to shiver as her body cooled. Jumping out of the bed quickly, much to Lindsay's dismay, Danny tracked down his boxers and pulled them on, heading to where they'd thrown their shirts and picking up his. He hopped back into bed with Lindsay and carefully lifted her up, pulling the shirt over her head and helping her put her arms through it to cover the trunk of her body. Her heart melted once more for him, seeing how attentive he was to her needs, and she showed her appreciation by kissing him sweetly. Lying down together once more, their bodies began to entangle themselves as sleep overtook them and they willingly gave in.

**

* * *

****I really hope that nobody felt that it was too soon for them to be doing that – as I said, this chapter took on a mind of its own, and since I'm not really the one in charge around here, I just go with the flow! :)**

**Next time, Danny and Lindsay finally get a chance to go back home!**

**Thank you all for reading! **


	11. Chapter 11

**OK, so my original plan was to have gotten this chapter up two days ago and worked to get the next chapter ready to go around mid-week, but the ones who are in charge around here (aka the voices in my head that tell me what to do – they say "Hi!" to everybody by the way!) decided to hold off on this chapter and instead add two chapters at the same time! I hope nobody minds this new game plan, but if you do, please take it up with the ones in charge (I warn you, though, they only like it when people agree with them!) :P**

**There's a lot going on in this chapter, so I hope it's not too confusing.**

**The voices want me to shut up now and tell you to enjoy.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

The next day and a half were a bit crazy for Danny and Lindsay.

They heard nothing from Mac about the IAB report on their first full day of living in a hotel, which made Danny, and especially Lindsay, more than a little anxious given that they'd been told the report would likely be finished that day.

As if that wasn't enough, Lucy, though happy to have her parent's undivided attention, did not like the fact that she was being cooped up in the hotel room all day, as neither Lindsay nor Danny had their cell phones with them and they didn't want to leave for fear that they'd miss Mac's call. The novelty of her new surroundings wore off soon after she woke up, as did the limited supply of toys they had brought with them. She refused to go down for her nap in protest of the injustices her parents thrust upon her, which only escalated the matter around dinner time. Eventually, Danny and Lindsay broke down and took Lucy out for an hour, leaving Mac a message to tell him that they'd had to go out to calm Lucy down. They drove around for a while, which quieted Lucy somewhat, and they ultimately decided that the best thing was to stop at a nearby park and let Lucy run around for a while and tire herself out. She was pretty sleepy when they got back to the hotel room, so they decided to forego the bath and put her in her pyjamas and get her straight to bed.

The only problem was that she woke up again about a half hour later, screaming and crying from a nightmare and stuttering on about Daddy's friend 'Ane'. They tried to calm her down by promising her that 'Ane' wasn't going to come back and scare her ever again and by handing her Horsey to keep her safe, but each time Lindsay tried to put her back in the playpen, Lucy freaked out and clung all the more tightly to her mother. Both parents were completely exhausted by this point, so they decided to renege on the one big rule that they had established and brought Lucy to their bed to let her sleep with them. Danny and Lindsay took turns changing into their own pyjamas while the other one tried to keep Lucy calm, and when all three were finally ready, they cuddled up in the bed together, Lucy nestled between her two parents, and they all were asleep in a short amount of time.

XXXXXXX

The next morning, both Danny and Lindsay were woken up by the sensation of having their nose pressed into their faces – _hard_. Danny yelped and sat up quickly, startling Lucy by doing so. Thinking quickly, he distracted her by grabbing her and blowing raspberries on her tummy, sending her into a fit of giggles that only grew when Lindsay joined in and tickled her. Based on the different demeanour of Lucy right from when she work up, both Danny and Lindsay thought that this could be a much better day, a day that could only get better if the damn IAB report was finished too.

As Lindsay tried to feed Lucy some of the banana and yogurt she'd ordered for her daughter for breakfast, Danny tried to call his mother. He'd spoken to her briefly while Lindsay was with Dr. Young, letting her know that they were all alright and promising to call her again when they got settled at the hotel. When Maria Messer picked up and started to yell at him for not calling sooner, he quickly apologized and briefly explained that Lucy's bad day had thrown everything out of whack for them. Easing up on her son, she informed him that she was coming into Manhattan and wanted to see them all with her own two eyes. He knew better than to argue, so he gave her the hotel information, and she said to expect her within the hour.

True to her word, Maria Messer showed up at their room door with four minutes to spare. She embraced her son and daughter-in-law very tightly, checking them both over for any bumps and bruises. Normally, Danny would've told his mom to calm down and not worry so much, but he stayed silent this time, instead basking in her attention. Then Lucy caught her eye and as the little girl tottled over, calling out "Nona!", Maria forgot all about the two adults and showered all her attention on her granddaughter.

Just like at the lab, Lucy's excitement over new people to entertain her was overwhelming and Maria spent the next two hours keeping her distracted from her bland surroundings and her limited toy stash, while also managing to hold a conversation with Danny and Lindsay. They'd just made plans to go out for lunch together when the room phone rang.

Danny answered it and listened as his call was connected to Mac, the only person who knew where they were. "Hi Danny, I just got the IAB report on my desk about a half an hour ago, and I wanted you and Lindsay to come in so we can talk about it. While you're here, you can pick up your keys – your place has been released as a crime scene, so you're more than welcome to go back home."

"OK Mac, we'll be there within the hour." Hanging up, he turned to face an anxious Lindsay.

"Well?"

"Mac wants us to come in and talk about the IAB report and pick up our apartment keys."

"He didn't say anymore than that?" Warning bells started to go off in Lindsay's head, but she shoved them aside for the moment.

"Nope."

"Alright, well let's pack everything up and check out of here, we don't need to stay here anymore if we can go home." Danny stiffened as Lindsay spoke and she noticed it, but before she could ask him about it, he turned and spoke to his mother.

"We'll have to take a rain check on lunch Ma, we gotta go see Mac."

"Don't worry about it. How about I take Lucy for the rest of the day, let you guys finish all the stuff at work and set your home back in order again and then you can come and pick Lucy up from my house?"

"We don't want to impose on you Mom…" There was more to Lindsay's protest, but it died on her lips when she took in the determined look on Maria's face.

"You guys just pack up yours and Lucy's things and give me her diaper bag and playpen. I'll grab the car seat from you before you leave." Turning to Lucy, she picked the little girl up and hugged her. "What do you say bambina? You want to come to Nona and Papa's house?" Lucy's eyes grew the size of saucers and she started to jump up and down in Maria's arms. Lucy didn't often get the chance to go to Danny's parent's house, but she'd had a ball each time she went there.

In that moment, though, both Danny and Lindsay knew that they'd just been somewhat outwitted by a clever grandmother and her eager granddaughter, but they honestly didn't care and they just did as they were told.

XXXXXXXX

In the span of the next half-hour, the Messers were checked out of their hotel room, Maria had taken Lucy back to Staten Island and Danny and Lindsay were on their way to the lab to meet Mac. They parked the truck with the rest of the vehicles and made their way to the elevators, beginning the long journey up to the thirty-fifth floor. This time, people came and went off the car, and both Danny and Lindsay were glad to see that most didn't even give them a second glance. They both thought that maybe it was a sign of good things to come, a sign that things really were returning to normal.

They exited the elevator and headed straight to Mac's office, hands intertwined and ready to face whatever was coming their way together. Getting closer to the door, they saw that he was on the phone, but as soon as Mac noticed them, he waved them in and promptly ended the call as Danny and Lindsay sat down on the couch.

"Is Lucy better today?" Mac asked, finding it a little strange that Lucy was not with them.

"Yeah Mac. It helps that my mom showed up and asked if she wanted to go to Nona and Papa's house – you'd think she'd just won the lottery based on her reaction."

Mac chuckled a little, knowing his goddaughter well. The moment quickly passed, and Mac got down to business. "As I said on the phone, I got the IAB report about an hour ago now. It was supposed to be done yesterday, but Detective Owens had to take one of his kids to the doctor at the last minute, so he couldn't finish it before this morning. I've had the chance to read through it and just like I've been saying all along, they've ruled it a clean shoot. All the evidence corroborated your story and they found no fault with your actions Lindsay, and since Dr. Young cleared you for duty, you'll be right back to work once your vacation's over."

Mac could feel that a grin was slowly creeping up on his face, and he didn't bother and try to mask it in any way. Instead, he was caught off guard when Lindsay effectively flung herself at him and hugged him tight, kissing him on the cheek before pulling back with tears in her eyes. Danny was less surprised by his wife's actions because she'd already admitted to him just how worried she was about the IAB report, and he knew that no amount of words from him could completely sooth her fears.

Lindsay stepped back and sat on the couch once more, hugging Danny even more tightly as he whispered in her ear "I knew you had nothing to worry about." She whacked him lightly on the back and tightened her arms once more when Mac started to speak again.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, as soon as you sign off on the paperwork for them, you can have your keys back and you can get out of here again – this is the last time that I want to see you before you're back from vacation." Mac produced the proper papers which Lindsay eagerly signed, and then he tossed the keys to Danny, who accepted them reluctantly. Mac noticed the odd look on Danny's face, but before he could say anything, Lindsay hugged him again and Danny shook his hand quickly before the two walked out of Mac's office and disappeared into an elevator.

XXXXXXXX

The car ride over to their apartment was a quiet one, both lost in their thoughts even though their hands remained joined over the centre console. Danny managed to find a parking space right near the front door to their building, so he took it and they both hopped out of the vehicle and unloaded their bags from the flatbed. Taking one each, they walked hand in hand through the building to the elevator, in the ride up and then down the hall to their front door. It seemed weird that they'd not been there for a couple of days, but they were happy to see that the crime scene tape was gone.

Danny put the keys in the lock and turned them, using his body to force the door open as he turned the doorknob. Lindsay tightened her grip on Danny's hand as she followed him through the door and closed it behind them. They left their bags near the front door for the moment and took in the sights and smells that met them. Nothing here had been touched, so it all seemed so normal, but a nagging voice in both their heads reminded them that that wasn't the case. The faintest smell of industrial cleaners started to waft into their noses, and Danny started to freak out at what he was experiencing, so he was looking for a distraction – any distraction.

"I'm gonna start unpacking and put together a load of laundry. You wanna help me with that?"

Lindsay nodded and broke away from his touch, grabbing their suitcases and a laundry basket from the corner of the living room to pile all the dirty clothes in. She too welcomed a distraction, as she felt a strong compulsion to go to Lucy's room and see what it looked like now.

Working together, it took them less than ten minutes to pull together a load of laundry and Danny quickly volunteered to go put it in the washer. He left the apartment with the laundry basket and detergent, leaving Lindsay to once again dwell on the state of Lucy's room. She pulled the few clean clothes from the suitcases and stacked them on the coffee table, placing Lucy's suitcase inside their own and leaving them by the front door to be returned to their storage locker downstairs.

Lindsay sat down on the couch once more and tried to think about anything else, but the urge to investigate was just too strong. She got up and slowly made her way down the hallway to Lucy's room. Her shaking hand reached out and flipped the light switch on, the sight before her making her gasp and cover her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. For the most part, it appeared as though nothing happened there, but to the trained CSI, there were still signs.

The room reeked of chemical cleaners and the fumes stung Lindsay's eyes and nose. She could still make out the faintest outline of the bloodstain because even though it wasn't there anymore, the image had forever been burned into Lindsay's head, and it was one that she knew she would not shake for the rest of her life. On the wall over Lucy's crib, she could see where the bullet had hit the wall, the putty filling in the hole left behind a different colour from the walls. The daisy stickers which only days earlier were splattered with blood and brain matter were now clean, but Lindsay's mind filled in what her eyes could no longer see.

The shock of her findings beginning to ebb, Lindsay started to think about the best way to air the smell out of her daughter's room. Knowing that the window would be the quickest and most effective means of doing so, Lindsay stepped over to the sill and reached out for the latch when a sudden and crippling fear overcame her body and she crashed down to the floor under the window, sobbing.

XXXXXXXX

Danny felt more than a little guilty about running out on Lindsay, but he hadn't expected his emotions to be so overwhelming from the minute he walked through the apartment door. He'd been apprehensive about returning 'home', unsure of how long he'd be able to stay in the apartment before flashing back to what had happened. When he walked in and switched on the hall light, his eyes automatically fell on the dining room table and he swore that he could still see the gun and Lucy's bloody shirt still on it. The stench of the cleaners hit his nose and he saw the image of Shane Casey lying on the floor with a growing pool of blood underneath him, and it scared him that he'd only been there for a minute and already he wanted to leave.

After Danny had asked for help separating their clothes out for some laundry, he thought for a second that he was seeing Lindsay sitting across from the couch on a dining room chair, staring blankly off into space. He was now certain that it was going to be all but impossible for him to stay in their apartment, but there was only one problem: How was he going to tell Lindsay that? She seemed to be in a hurry to return to their apartment and move forward, but Danny didn't think that was really the way to move forward, especially in a place that had been tainted so completely for him.

He wasn't in a hurry to go back upstairs, but after making it all the way to the laundry room, he remembered what Flack had told him about Casey not only listening in on their phone line but also taking his academy reunion t-shirt from the dryer. He realized then that in his mind, the entire building was tainted and he knew that he had to tell Lindsay how he was feeling.

Returning upstairs with the filled laundry basket, he walked in the door and stopped dead when he saw the light on in Lucy's room. He had expected that his wife's curiosity would get the better of her, but he should have known better than to think that it could be kept at bay for long. He dropped the basket in the hallway and slowly made his way down to Lucy's room, his heart racing by the time he reached her doorway. Preparing himself to look into Lucy's room, he had to shake the image of Casey holding his daughter, closing his eyes to focus on making the image go away. When he opened them again, he looked into the room and saw what was truly there: Lindsay, collapsed under the window, her head in her hands. He was about to rush to her side when her shaky voice filled the room.

"I thought I'd open the window to get rid of the smell, but then I remembered that that's how Shane Casey got in and I panicked – everything came rushing back."

Taking a deep breath, Danny forced himself to take each necessary step to close the distance between them and he sat down beside her. "That's why I don't think we should stay here."

"Danny, this is our home – we'd have to come back here sooner or later."

"That's not what I meant. I think we should move."

"What?" Lindsay was honestly shocked by his admission. "Where are we gonna go Danny? Rent is expensive and we're in one the cheaper buildings around here, and we're on rent-control too. We may be doing better financially, but we're far from being debt-free. We can't afford it, but more importantly, we can't let Shane Casey run us out of our home!"

"Please stop calling it that!" Danny deplored her. "He had a guy tap into our phone line, he took one of my shirts out of the laundry, had his accomplice wear it and then he killed him, he climbed into our daughter's room from the fire escape outside her window – this isn't our 'home' anymore, it's just a bunch of walls and doors."

"You're so willing to just forget all the good memories that you've had here over the years, that we've had here ever since I moved in and we brought Lucy home?"

"It's not about forgetting the good: it's about having the good tainted by the fact that our family of three nearly became a family of two. I don't think I can make new memories here without that thought running through the back of my mind."

Lindsay decided to stay silent for some time to think about what Danny was saying. She understood all too well what it was to live in a place that held less than happy memories for you. About a month after Danny's first proposal, he'd asked her to move in with him, saying that he wanted them all to live under one roof and that his place made the most sense, being that it was bigger, cheaper, and better located. She'd told him that she had to think about it, and the decision weighed heavy on her mind for the next couple of days. It wasn't that she didn't want to live with Danny because she did and he was right that his place made the most sense. Lindsay's hesitation, instead, all boiled down to Rikki Sandoval – she didn't live in the building anymore, but the thought of what she and Danny had done in his apartment, it was almost enough to cancel out any of the great memories that Danny and Lindsay had shared there, or could share there. However, Lindsay had decided that the best thing to do was to make his place _their_ place, adding her own little touches here so that would make it easier for them to create new memories there of their growing family. Though it had not always been easy for her, the strategy had worked once before for Lindsay, so she was determined to make it work a second time. She just needed Danny to give her plan some time to work.

"Dan, I understand what you're feeling, believe me, but I don't think we should decide everything right now. Why don't we just you and I stay here tonight and see how we handle it. We can talk about this again in the morning, once we've gotten some rest and have slept on it. What do you say?"

Danny let of a sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose, not liking what he was about to say. "I'm not thrilled with the plan, and I can tell you right now that I'm not going to change my mind in the morning, but I'm willing to try."

She gave him a small smile and he felt a little bit better about the situation. "Let's get the rest of the stuff put away and we'll call your mom to see if she wouldn't mind keeping Lucy for the night. Did you put that load of laundry in the washer?"

"To tell you the truth, I couldn't put it in."

Lindsay could see that he was worried about coming across as too weak to handle his emotions about their apartment, and the building at large, so she reached out to rub his arm soothingly. "That's OK. We'll go to the laundry mat not too far from here and do it there. We need some groceries anyways, so we can do that at the same time."

Danny wanted to protest, to tell her that it was a silly idea to go almost three blocks to do their laundry when there were perfectly good machines in the basement, but the look of determination on her face told him that she didn't want to push all this stuff on him at once if he was feeling so uncomfortable. Grabbing her hand and kissing it, he stood up and pulled her with him so they could finish unpacking their stuff.

XXXXXXXX

Hours later, Danny was still apprehensive about the apartment, but he was more willing to give it a fair chance first. When they'd phoned Danny's mom, she was more than willing to take Lucy for the night, and upon hearing their predicament, she told them that they were more than welcome to stay in Staten Island for as long as they needed to if they found their apartment too much do deal with, because there was enough space to accommodate them all and she'd actually enjoy having them stay there. Both Danny and Lindsay thanked her for the offer and Danny was glad to have a back-up plan should they need it. They'd gone to do their laundry at the laundry mat several blocks away, throwing all their dirty clothes into one of Danny's old duffle bags. They sat down in the place and waited as their clothes washed and dried, not really saying a lot but instead enjoying each other's company with a renewed vigour. On the way home, they'd stopped for a few groceries to make sandwiches for dinner. When they returned and as Lindsay busied herself with making dinner, Danny set up the only fan they owned in Lucy's doorway and opened the window in a bid to clean the smell out.

They both avoided eating at the dining room table, taking up residence on the couch and channel surfing for a program to provide them with a little background noise. Danny managed to find a marathon of the '90s era Batman cartoon, so he left it on that, surprised when Lindsay said nothing and just watched them with him in silence, not even taking the opportunity to make fun of the characters like she usually did. By 10 pm, both of them were nodding off, so they decided to turn in for the night.

Danny tried to go to sleep, but each time he closed his eyes, he seemed to see a different image or scenario from the ordeal, some real and some completely fabricated by his mind out of what could have happened. He tried to keep still as Lindsay was only in a light sleep herself and he'd already woken her up twice because of his fidgeting, but two hours had passed and he was still awake.

He closed his eyes once more and was surprised when he didn't see anything. Hoping that it was a good sign, Danny gave into his exhaustion and went to sleep.

XXXXXXXX

_Danny felt like he was running through a maze, constantly running into dead ends and getting completely turned around. Finally, he heard Lindsay's voice call out to him and he turned to the sound, seeing her standing down a path he'd not gone down yet. She didn't stay in one place for very long, so he had to chase after her. He followed her voice as she continued to call his name and the short glimpses of her until they were both only feet from the exit, but what he found there prevented him from moving anywhere._

_Shane Casey was holding Lucy once again in his arms, but this time Lindsay was the one standing across from him and his gun was trained on his daughter. Glancing up, Casey saw Danny and sneered. "Nice of you to join us Danny. Now you get to decide: either your wife or your daughter will die, but who will you choose to live?"_

_Danny panicked, having no idea what to say or do, and Casey cackled evilly. "Too slow."_

_In two quick and successive motions, Casey shot Lindsay through the head and then Lucy, dropping her lifeless body to the ground before running out of the maze, leaving Danny frozen in shock as he stared at his dead family._

He bolted upright in bed covered in a cold sweat, tears already streaming down his face as he tried to find his bearings. As he slowly realized that it had all been a sick nightmare, he noticed that Lindsay wasn't in bed beside him anymore, so he threw off the covers and went in search of her, padding down the hallway to Lucy's room, where he could see the faint light of the nightlight being cast out from the otherwise dark apartment.

He found her curled up on the rocking chair, rocking herself back and forth while staring off into space, tears in her eyes he guessed based off her laboured breathing. "Linds, sweetie, what's the matter?"

"I think you're right, I think we need to move."

"What? I thought you wanted to stay, or at the very least try to stick it out for a while."

"I was wrong. I thought I could do it, but I couldn't – I can't. I can only close my eyes for a few minutes before I'm reliving that night and each time it's different. I thought it would pass so I didn't say anything and you were already having such a hard time going to sleep. The last time it happened, both you and Lucy ended up dead because I screwed up. I tried to shake it, but every time I close my eyes, I'd see your bodies and I couldn't take it anymore, so I gave up on sleeping. I'm not really sure why I came in here, though."

"Maybe the nightmares will pass with time." He knew he was grasping at straws, but it was for Lindsay's sake because he knew that she really wanted to try to stay.

"C'mon Danny, you and I both haven't had nightmares about what happened before tonight and we've been less exhausted that this. It's not a coincidence that we return to the scene of the crime and both you and I get them, almost at the same time. You can't honestly tell me that you want to stay here, can you?"

Stepping right in front of his wife and crouching down before her, steadying himself on the chair arms, he looked her right in the eyes and replied. "No, but I want you to be sure that this is what you want."

"I'm sure." Danny didn't hear an ounce of hesitance in her voice.

"Alright, I promise we'll figure this all out and we'll be OK, you, me and Lucy."

"I know." With that, Lindsay leaned forward and kissed Danny before disentangling herself from the chair and leading him from the room back to their own bedroom to plan what to do next.

As Lindsay walked out of their daughter's room, she realized that she had learned a very important lesson that night: 'home' isn't a fixed address, it's wherever the people you love are.

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**Alright, so I really hope that this chapter didn't move too fast for you – I wanted to keep the focus here on the return to the apartment, but not completely ignore what happened before they got there (if that made any sense!)**

**A couple of you in your reviews have been asking about/hinting at their return 'home', so I hope that you're not disappointed with the direction I took here! *crosses fingers and toes***

**Onto the next chapter!**


	12. Chapter 12

**OK, so just in case you missed it in the summary, this is the second of two chapters I added today, so you need to go to chapter 11 first!**

**For those of you who just came from chapter 11, please enjoy once again!**

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Talking it over for a few minutes, Danny and Lindsay decided together that they'd drive out to Staten Island and go stay with Danny's parents for a few nights while they figured out what they were going to do about their living arrangements. They only had two days left in their vacation, so it would be interesting when they returned to work for the commute, but they vowed to make it work.

For the next twenty minutes, they packed up their stuff again, using Danny's old duffle bag and an old piece of Lindsay's luggage to make sure that they'd had enough things for themselves and for Lucy. Trying to make the process as easy on themselves as they could, Danny and Lindsay worked together to grab all the things from Lucy's room that they thought she'd need and quickly packed them in Lucy's little suitcase and in every empty crevice of their bags. It wasn't that they were averse to having to return to their apartment, it was just that they'd not wanted to have to keep coming back for little things that they needed.

Getting dressed quickly, they carried all the bags out the front door before locking up and heading down to the Avalanche. They were on the road within five minutes, and even though it was the middle of the night, there was still a fair amount of traffic. As Danny drove to his parent's place, he noticed that Lindsay had fallen asleep on him, and his heart went out to her. She'd been so determined to stay at their place and move forward like nothing bad had happened there, much like he'd known she'd done when she first moved in, though she'd never admitted it to him. He knew she was more than a little disappointed in herself for not being strong enough to rise above it all, but he knew that there was no reason for her to feel like that. He'd just have to convince her of that fact for the next little while.

Pulling into his parent's driveway, he smiled to himself when he saw that the front porch light was already on, his mother seemingly aware that they'd show up even before they were. Turning the car off, he decided to leave all the bags in the truck and get them in the morning, so all he needed to do was get Lindsay in the house. He realized that the best way to do that was to go open the front door first and then come back for her, so he quietly exited the car and ran up the front steps, digging though one of the hanging flowerpots until he found the key his mother had told him would be there. Putting it in the lock, he opened the door as quietly as possible so as to not wake up either Lucy or his parents, and then he went back for Lindsay.

He slowly opened her door and released the seatbelt, drawing it back across Lindsay's body to its housing. As Danny took her into his arms and shut and locked the truck, Lindsay started to stir, mumbling in her sleep. "Are we there yet Danny?"

"Yeah, but you go back to sleep, I got you."

"OK." She wrapped her arms around his neck and went back to sleep, letting her head fall to his chest.

Danny was trying to figure out how he would open the door without waking Lindsay again when he noticed his mother standing in the doorway, waiting for him to come back. As he got to the bottom step, Maria Messer opened the door and held it for her son and daughter-in-law, following them back inside. When she was finished locking up once more and she had turned off the outside light, Maria turned towards her son and Danny started whispering to her.

"Ma, why are you awake? I was trying to be quiet so I wouldn't wake anybody."

"I knew you'd be over here the minute you didn't try and turn down my offer, so I've been waiting for you to arrive. I was only in a light sleep, so it's fine, and once you and Lindsay are settled in your old room, I can go back to sleep." Maria started up the stairs, so Danny followed close behind her, letting her lead them to his old bedroom. She stayed in the hallway and waved him into his room, and Danny noticed that she'd tidied it up a bit and put clean sheets on his old twin bed.

"Ma, you didn't have to do any of this."

"Daniel, hush. I know it may not be what you're used to anymore, but I doubt you'll mind sharing the small space with your loving wife." Danny wasn't sure if his mother was trying to imply something else with her comment, but he found himself blushing anyways.

Walking to the doorway with Lindsay still in his arms, he leaned down as best he could and placed a kiss on his mother's cheek. "Thanks Ma."

"You're welcome. Lucy's in Louis's room, and I'm going back to bed now. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Ma."

As she left, Maria closed the bedroom door, giving the couple at least a bit of privacy. Alone again, Danny first walked over to the bed and gently placed Lindsay down on the side closest to the wall. He took off her shoes and struggled somewhat with her pants, but managed to have them most of the way off before Lindsay began to stir.

"Danny?"

"I'm here babe. I'm just finishing taking your pants off, but I need you to sit up for me so I can get your shirt off."

She slowly responded to his request, so Danny used the time in between to take his own shirt off, revealing his trademark wife beater underneath. With her sitting up just enough for him to do his work, Danny pulled her shirt over her head and quickly tugged his on her petit frame, and he saw the sleepy smile on her face as she breathed in his familiar scent.

Peeling off his jeans and revealing the pyjama bottoms that he'd been too lazy to take off earlier, Danny climbed onto the small bed and pulled Lindsay under the covers with him. With the limited space, Danny and Lindsay were forced to sleep pretty much on top of one another, but that really wasn't any different from how they normally slept together. As Lindsay's body, even in sleep, moved to cover more than half of his, Danny wrapped his arms around her and shut his eyes, allowing sleep to take him too.

XXXXXXXX

The next morning, Danny woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs and for a second he wasn't sure where he was. He started to feel for his wife, but when he felt empty air and then the wall, he remembered that they were in his parent's house and he realized that Lindsay must have somehow disentangled herself from him and presumably gotten up to get Lucy and some breakfast. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Danny rolled out of bed and headed downstairs. He followed the hushed sounds of talking and came upon his mother, standing at the stove tending to a fry pan as Lindsay, Lucy and his father sat at the small table in the kitchen. He saw that Lucy was being entertained by her grandfather, giggling away in her mother's lap, and he couldn't help the smile that overtook his face. Danny then took in Lindsay's appearance, and he was saw that she'd put her pants back on, but left his shirt on, and he found himself blushing a bit as the shirt hung off her one shoulder, clearly not her size.

Maria chose that exact moment to look up at her son, and she saw the blush on his face from his wife's attire, but she also saw just how much love radiated out from her son for his wife, and Maria smiled to herself. "Good morning Danny," she said, alerting everyone else to his presence.

Lindsay turned and smiled up at him. Danny responded by pointedly looking at her attire and then back at her eyes. Lindsay's smile only grew and she simply shrugged at him and turned her attention back to Lucy and her father-in-law. Danny couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips as he moved to take up one of the remaining chairs, placing a kiss on Lindsay's lips and another to Lucy's forehead before sitting down across from his father.

"Hey Pop. I see you're using your many talents to keep Lucy occupied."

"Don't scoff at it, I used to keep you and your brother entertained the exact same way," Carmine Messer retorted back.

Danny was about to say something back to his dad when he felt a firm tap to the back of his head. "OWW!"

"Be nice to your father, it's too early for the two of you to be bickering." Maria took up the final chair at the table, putting a plate of food and a fork in front of her son. Despite the fact that his head still stung, Danny leaned forward to kiss his mother on the cheek. "Thanks Ma."

As Danny scarfed down his food, the other adults made small talk, going over plans for the rest of Danny and Lindsay's vacation (there were none to speak of) and the invitation for Danny, Lindsay and Lucy to stay with Danny's parents for as long as they needed to (which Lindsay accepted with great humility after several failed attempts to convince them otherwise – Danny's parents were stubborn, just like their son).

Danny got up to place his dishes in the sink, deciding to wash all the dishes as a token of his gratitude for what his parents were willing to do for him and his family. Expecting his mother to shoo him away and take over, he was shocked when she only reminded him that fresh dish towels were in the second drawer on the right and went right back to the conversation. Clearly not understanding his mother at all, he pulled out a clean towel, threw it over his shoulder and set about washing and drying the dishes all by himself.

He couldn't hear anything over the water, so he missed the women all heading for the living room, and his father coming over to take the towel from his shoulder and dry the dishes, something Carmine Messer never did unless he wanted to talk in private with someone.

"Are you all OK Danny?" He already knew everything that his wife had told him, but he wanted to hear the words from his son with his own ears.

"I swear Pop, we're all doing OK, actually we're doing better than I though we might've. We both spoke to the NYPD shrink and it helped us realize that we are strong enough as a couple to survive all this and move on." Though Danny hadn't always gotten along well with his father for most of his life, Louis's death had thawed out a lot of that, the rest of the nudging coming from Lindsay's encouraging Danny to have a relationship with his father. It hadn't been easy for either of them, but seeing how well his father had taken to Lindsay and how Lucy had him wrapped around her little finger, Danny was glad that he'd taken the advice.

"What about your apartment? What are you two going to do about that?"

"I didn't want to live there anymore, but I was willing to try it out for Lindsay's sake, but she discovered that she couldn't live there anymore either. We've got a couple of weeks before the end of the month, so hopefully we can luck out and find some place that's big enough and not too expensive and available for the first of the month. We'll make it work Pop, don't worry."

"I'm not. I'm just glad that you are all safe and that you're wanting to focus on the future instead of dwelling on the past." That was about as close to expressing emotions as Danny's father ever got, so he smiled at his dad and nodded in thanks for what he'd said. With that, the conversation between the two men was done and they went back to washing and drying the dishes.

XXXXXXXX

"You knew all along that we'd be coming out here, didn't you?" Lindsay asked her mother-in-law, in awe of how intuitive the woman could be.

"I didn't think you'd want to stay in a place where one of you almost lost their life." Maria started to get a bit emotional, knowing full well that that someone was meant to be her son, but she pressed forward. "I was actually surprised that it took so long for you to get here."

Lindsay blushed in shame and avoided her mother-in-law's gaze as she spoke again, barely above a whisper. "That was my fault. I wanted to stay, to prove to everyone that Shane Casey couldn't force me from my home after nearly taking Danny away from me, but I just couldn't do it. I guess I'm not as strong as I thought I was."

Lindsay felt a few tears prick up in her eyes, but before she could turn away to wipe at her eyes, her chin was being lifted to meet the older woman's face eye to eye. "Sweet child, it's not about being strong or not. Nobody thinks any less of either of you for choosing not to remain in a place with a daily reminder of what you almost lost, and even if they did, they'd have to answer to Danny. You need to try to let that feeling go."

Lindsay nodded, knowing that Maria was right, and she let herself be enveloped in Maria's arms for a comforting hug. Pulling away, Danny's mother placed a kiss on Lindsay's cheek and smiled, both of them hearing Danny and his father approaching. Maria stood up at that moment and addressed her son. "Well, your father and I have a few errands to run this morning, so you three will have the house to yourselves for a couple of hours." With that, the elder Messers headed for the door and left the house. Danny and Lindsay looked at each other, more than a little confused. As Danny went over to shut the door after his parents, his mother reappeared with the Lucy's car seat in hand.

"Just in case you need to go somewhere before we get back. Be good, children." Grabbing her purse off the front hall table, Maria disappeared once more, closing the door after herself.

"That was weird," Lindsay admitted with a chuckle.

"Yeah. How's about we head upstairs, get showered and get dressed?" Danny suggested.

Lindsay was about to respond when her phone started vibrating in her pocket. Pulling it out, she saw that it was Mac trying to get in touch with her. "You two go ahead, I'll be up right after you once I get off the phone with M-A-C." Danny and Lindsay had found out the hard way that it was a bad idea to announce that Mac was on the phone within earshot of Lucy, as she got very upset when she didn't get a chance to talk to her godfather before they hung up the phone. Getting the message, Danny scooped Lucy up from where she'd been playing on the floor and babbled with her all the way up the stairs, until Lucy was out of earshot and Lindsay could finally answer.

"Sorry Mac, I had to wait until Danny could get Lucy out of earshot."

"Don't worry about it. I was just calling to make sure that your place was back in order when you got there and that you guys were settling in OK."

Lindsay hesitated for a moment before answering, feeling her emotions from the previous night starting to creep up inside her once more. "No, everything was fine at the apartment Mac, crime scene clean-up did a good job. But we're not at the apartment anymore, we're gonna stay at Danny's parents place until we find another place to live."

"Really?" Mac had seen the hesitation on Danny's face as he tossed him the keys to the place he'd called home for many years and he'd guessed that it was everything to do with what had happened there, but Lindsay seemed to have been relieved to be going home – or at least she had.

"Yeah. We tried to stay there last night, but neither Danny nor I could get the images of what happened out of our heads, and we just could not sleep at all. We need a fresh start."

To tell the truth, Mac wasn't surprised to hear this – a similar situation had happened with Stella after she'd killed Frankie in her apartment several years ago. She'd declined his offer to put her up in a hotel, determined to go back to her home after being released from the hospital, but instead he found her at his front door, having snuck into his building as another tenant left, looking for a safe place to crash. She'd ended up staying for a week with him before she finally felt safe and secure enough to go stay in a hotel while she went apartment hunting. In that moment, Mac found himself being reminded once again of just how strong his two female colleagues are, one of the many things they shared in common, and how hard it was for either of them to accept that something was too much for them to deal with.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Mac's head and the wheels in his mind started turning very quickly, as he believed that he could kill two birds with one stone, all by making one simple phone call.

"Are you still there Mac?" Lindsay was slightly confused because she could still hear somebody breathing on the other end of the line, but no talking.

"Sorry Lindsay, I just had an idea." There was another pause on Mac's end, and a muffled voice. "We just got another case come in, so I'm going to have to go now, but I'm gonna make a phone call to a friend of mine and then I'll call you back on your cell phone."

"Sure Mac, but…"

"OK, bye."

Lindsay heard the call disconnect on the other end and she pulled the phone away from her ear to stare at the blank screen, completely confused. Shaking her head, she put the phone back in her pocket and trudged up the stairs in search of Danny. She found him in his room, showing Lucy all his old baseball trophies. He heard her come in and he turned to her, noticing the strange look on her face. "What did he want?"

"He was calling to check up on us and make sure that we were settling in OK. When I told him that we're planning on finding a new place to live, he went real quiet for a minute and then he said he was gonna call a friend of his and call me back later."

"Did he say anything else?"

"No, a new case came in, so he ended the call quickly without saying anything else."

"What the heck does all that mean?" Danny was now just as confused as Lindsay.

"I don't know, but we're just gonna have to wait and see."

"OK, well can you take Lucy for a couple of minutes? I came up here to get her dressed, but then I remembered that all our stuff is still in the truck. She'd got a fresh diaper on already, she just needs some clothes."

"Sure." Lindsay reached out and took Lucy from him, but before he could get by her, she secured Lucy with one arm on her left hip, using the other to grab Danny by the back of the neck and pull him in for a searing kiss, which he was more than willing to have go on for a long time, but Lucy's fussing forced them apart. His chest heaving up and down as he stared at his wife's flushed face, Danny tried to figure out what had just happened.

"Thank you Danny for putting aside with your own feelings last night about the apartment. I know that wasn't easy for you, but I know that you did it for me because I needed to see if I could still live there."

"You're welcome babe, but you should know already that I'd do anything for you."

"I know, but I shouldn't have asked you to do that, I should've realized that it was silly to think that both of us – all three of us really – could go back there and pretend that nothing had happened there."

"It's not silly Linds, you didn't want what happened to us to drive us out of our apartment. If we were completely rational people it could've worked, but we're not. Look, you shouldn't be disappointed in yourself for not sticking it out there. I'm proud of you for just trying, but I'm even prouder of you for admitting that it was too much for you to handle, rather than trying to push on through regardless of your feelings."

Lindsay started to chuckle to herself and she spoke once again when she noticed the confused look on Danny's face. "Your mom said the same thing to me this morning."

"What can I say, great minds think alike!"

Before Lindsay could scoff at the re-appearance of his large ego, Danny quickly left the room. Turning her attention back to her daughter, Lindsay decided to continue the tour of Danny's room, looking at the pictures and trophies just as intensely as the little girl. However, one thought kept running through the back of Lindsay's mind:

Just what did Mac have in store for them?

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**Be honest, who's asking that very question right now? *notices all hands going up* If any of you have any theories that you'd like to share, please feel free to drop me a line and tell me about them, but I promise, the true answer will be revealed in the next chapter – I think I've dragged enough things out in this story, don't you?**

**So I hope that you've all enjoyed the new chapters, and that you're still interested to find out what's gonna happen in the final 3 (!) chapters of this story!**

**Until our next rendezvous, thanks for reading and goodbye!**

**P.S. The voices want me to tell you all to enjoy your day/evening/night and be safe! They're so thoughtful sometimes! :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hi again everybody! I'm not going to try to make excuses for why this update took so long, but let's just say that I need to work on my time management skills!**

**But enough about that, and onto what you guys really care about: the reveal of what Mac has up his sleeve!**

**Please enjoy!**

* * *

Both Danny and Lindsay had hoped that Mac would be calling them back fairly quickly, but with the team catching yet another case, they knew that the return call would likely be hours away. In the meantime, they tried to keep themselves occupied, Danny deciding to take his girls on a tour of his childhood haunts, including the baseball diamond where he'd spent a lot of time perfecting his game and the park where as a little boy he'd spent countless hours going down the slide over and over again. He took Lucy down it several times, but when she saw another kid on the swings, she lost all interest in the slide and spent the good part of the next hour being pushed on the baby swing by her mommy and daddy. It was a bit of a task to get her to leave the swings without throwing a fit, but the promise of coming back again with Nona and Papa was enough to get her to willingly leave.

They made their way back to Danny's parents' home, Lucy perched on Danny's shoulders and Lindsay walking with her arm wrapped around Danny's waist, and as they approached the house, they noticed that his parent's car was back in the driveway. As it was now nearly lunchtime, they hurried inside and found Maria Messer already preparing some sandwiches for them all. Danny filled his parents in on what they'd done that morning, including the mysterious phone call from Mac, and Maria and Carmine were just as perplexed as the younger couple. Carmine noticed that Lucy was nodding off after finishing only half of her small sandwich, so he offered to take her from Danny and went to put her down for her nap in the playpen, the little one all tuckered out from her morning in the park.

The four adults spent the next couple of hours chatting, catching up on what Lucy had been doing lately as well as hearing stories both from Lindsay's childhood back in Montana and Danny's growing up in that very house, stories which most often included Louis. Lindsay had been around the elder Messers enough to know that they didn't talk a lot about their eldest son because it was too painful for them, so Lindsay took it as a great honour and a gesture of acceptance into the family that they'd talk so candidly of Louis in her presence. She already knew that Maria and Carmine saw her as their own child, but Lindsay still appreciated their openness.

It was nearing 2pm when Lindsay's cell phone started buzzing again in her pocket, and when she pulled it out, she saw Mac's name flash across the screen once more. Lightly touching Danny's arm to get his attention, she hit send and spoke. "Hey Mac."

"Hi Lindsay, sorry that it took so long to get back to you."

"Don't worry about it – you're busy working, unlike some of us."

Mac briefly chortled on the line. "You've more than earned that vacation and I know it hasn't been what you planned for, but I hope you're enjoying yourselves all the same."

"We are Mac, don't you worry."

"Good. Now, let's get back to business: I hope you don't have anything planned for the next few hours because I have a friend of mine that I want you and Danny to go meet. You got a pen and paper handy so I can give you his name and address?

Lindsay gestured at Danny for the things she needed, but Maria was quicker and handed them straight to Lindsay. "OK Mac, I'm ready." She copied down the address and the man's name, Russell Evans, and the time he was expecting them, between 3:45 and 4:00 pm, but once again, before Lindsay could get anymore information, Mac was ending the call to go deal with the case.

Everyone in the room was staring at Lindsay, waiting for her to provide them all with more information, but she could only shrug and repeat what little Mac had given her. Everybody would have to be in the dark as to what was going on, and they could do little more than wait until 3:45.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next hour passed fairly slowly, even after Lucy woke up around 2:30 wanting to be released from her temporary prison. Just after 3pm, both Danny and Lindsay decided to change their clothes, wanting to look at least a bit more professional for their meeting with the mysterious Mr. Evans. Lindsay decided on a blue short-sleeve blouse and a pair of slacks, while Danny opted to keep his jeans and swap out his t-shirt for a white button-down. Heading back downstairs, they said goodbye to Lucy and to Danny's parents, who wished them luck with whatever this was all about, before exiting the house and jumping into the Avalanche, bound for the Manhattan address.

Though they were travelling close to the start of rush hour, they made good time, knowing that the majority of commuters would be leaving Manhattan for one of the burroughs and not the other way around. Still, it took them several passes before Danny could find a big enough parking spot even remotely close to the building they were looking for, and by the time they hopped out of the car it was nearly 3:42. They walked the one and a half blocks to the proper address and found themselves staring up at a six-story red brick building, one which from the outside looked very much like an apartment building.

Danny and Lindsay shared a look of confusion before climbing the outer stairs to the front door and seeing the buzzer system. Danny scrolled through the names until he found a R. Evans and he punched in the appropriate code, hoping that someone would pick up on the other end.

"Hello?" a gruff voice answered.

"Hi, we're the Messers, Danny and Lindsay. Mac Taylor sent us to come meet with a Mr. Russell Evans."

"That would be me, come right up." The voice seemed to soften somewhat after learning who they were and they heard the buzzer unlock the door to let them in. From Mac's instructions, they already knew that they were headed for 404, so they got into one of the elevators and took the short ride up to the fourth floor. Stepping off the car, a sign told them they were looking for a place on the left, and they found 404 quickly, the door already slightly ajar. Danny looked down at Lindsay to see what he should do next, but she only shrugged, so Danny reached out and knocked on the door. They heard a muffled voice call out "C'mon in, I'll be right out," and they did as instructed.

Opening the door and walking through, neither of them really knew what to expect, and what they found behind the door was probably one of the last things on their lists.

They walked into a large and mainly empty apartment, seeing only a dining room set and a couple of armchairs. Danny closed the door behind him and stopped in the foyer beside Lindsay, both of them admiring the space, when a man roughly Mac's age with greying hair and dressed in an expensive-looking black suit, came out of the back of the apartment towards them.

"You must be Danny and Lindsay, I've heard so much about you two from Mac, and about that little girl of yours, Lucy. I'm Russell Evans, but please call me Russ. So, what do you think of the place?" He saw the shocked and confused looks on both the faces before him, and he started to guess that they were in the dark as to what they were doing here. "Alright, it seems like Mac left some vital information out. Why don't we sit down at the table, and I can fill you in. Can I offer either of you anything to drink?"

Both Danny and Lindsay shook their heads, and all three made their way to the table, both men making sure that Lindsay was seated first before joining her.

"OK, let me start back about 25 years, when I first met Mac in the Marine Corps. I had the honour and the privilege of serving with him for several years overseas before he left and settled here in New York with his wife to join the NYPD. About two years later, I left the Corps and returned here, my hometown, to go to law school. Over the years, we've kept up our friendship. Right now, I'm engaged and I'm about to move in with my fiancée's brownstone with her and her three kids, and rather than sell this place, I've decided to rent it out and make some money for myself. I told Mac about two weeks ago that I was planning on putting it up for rent tomorrow, and a couple of hours ago I got a phone call from him saying that I should meet with you and see if you wanted to rent it, seeing as you're looking to move after everything that's happened to your family in the last couple of days. I'm sorry that all of that happened to you, but I've very happy to see that you're OK."

Danny was still in shock, having no clue what to say to this man, but Lindsay had a burning question she needed answered. "But why us?"

Russ smiled at the young couple, understanding more and more about them, and taking a real liking to what he saw. "Well, I was hoping to rent this place to a nice young family because it has plenty of room to accommodate a couple of kids. I was also looking for people who would fit in with the rest of the tenants – there's a real sense of community among the people who live here, and not just anyone can fit into that. In a way, I already know that you guys would fit right in here if you wanted to live here. I know you've only just met me, but I feel like I already know so much about you from Mac – about everybody he works with as a matter of fact.

"Family had always been something very important to Mac and after Claire died, I wasn't sure how he was gonna cope anymore. He'd always been fairly close to the people he worked with, but with Claire gone, his co-workers became his family. Over the years, I've learned a lot about you two, Stella, Flack, Hawkes, Sid and Adam the jumpy lab tech, even though I've only met Stella before today. But something really changed with him when your daughter was born. The sparkle that used to be in his eyes every time he talked about Claire returned with Lucy. He's always regretted not having children, but by being Lucy's godfather, you've given him another chance. He no longer feels like he lost so much, between finding a tie to Claire in her son Reed and being a significant part of your daughter's life. This is my way of trying to repay you three for what you've done for Mac."

"I…I don't know what to say," Lindsay replied, tears pricking her eyes.

"Well, why don't I show you two around?"

"Sure, that sounds great," Danny answered for them both, just as emotional as his wife.

Together, they stood up and let Russ lead them on a tour of the apartment, which Danny and Lindsay were absolutely amazed by. The kitchen had been redone within the past three years with top of the line appliances and there was a half bath across from it, backing the front hall closet. Next Russ took them back to the three bedrooms. The two 'smaller' ones were just a little bit smaller than their current master bedroom, and they shared a full bath with a tub. The master bedroom was an expansive room with its own on-suite, equipped with a shower stall and dual sinks.

The tour now complete, Russ led them back to the dining room table to discuss more of the details. "The first three floors of the building are divided up into eight apartments, this floor and the one above have four per floor, and the top floor was remodelled about ten years ago and was converted from fours apartments into a huge penthouse suite with a special keyed access from the elevator. The building has a night guard who works from 11pm-7am each night and another who works on the weekends. There's a small exercise room in the basement, as well as a laundry room. You'll find a hook-up for a washer and dryer in the on-suite or you can decide to use the laundry room, it would be up to you. The only downside to this place is parking: often times you have to park several blocks away."

"Yeah, we found that out when we came here, but we rarely take one of the department vehicles home with is and there'd be more than enough room in here to park my bike when I'm not using it."

"Great. Now onto the matter of rent: I'm gonna be charging $1500 a month here, but I'm willing to make a deal with you guys for the first while if you choose to rent it. I know that you're still dealing with medical bills, so I imagine that you're a little tight on money right now. If you decide to take this place, I'll charge you the same amount as you're currently paying, if you don't mind my asking…"

"$900,"Lindsay quickly supplied.

"…Alright, I'll charge you $900 for the first six months, and then for the next six months, we'll increase the rent by $100 each month until we get up to the $1500. That way, you'll have time to deal with your bills and figure out your finances before your rent increases significantly." Russ stopped talking and looked at the couple, waiting to see what they might say. Instead of any further words, he only saw them stare at each other, still in shock.

"I can see that it's lot of information for you to take in all at once, so here's what we'll do: I'll give you 24 hours to decide what to do. If I hear from you before 5pm tomorrow, then the place is yours and I'll have a real estate lawyer friend of mine write up a lease agreement according to the terms we talked about and including all the appliances, this dining room set and those two chairs over there. If not, I'll go ahead with the ad in the paper for the day after tomorrow. How does that sound?"

Danny looked to Lindsay for approval before answering for them both. "That sounds great Russ. We'll talk it over tonight, and get back to you tomorrow to let you know our decision, either way."

"Perfect." Russ reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his wallet and a pen. Taking out what appeared to be a business card, he quickly scribbled down something on the back and handed it to Lindsay. "I'm not due in court tomorrow, so you should be able to reach me at my office, but if not, just call me on my cell phone, the number on the back, and you'll get me at almost anytime of the day."

Russ stood up and reached out for Danny's hand across the table, shaking it firmly before repeating the process with Lindsay. He led them to the front door before turning to face them once more. "There's no pressure for you to take this place, but I just wanted you to know that whatever the outcome, it was truly a pleasure meeting you both."

"The same goes for you Russ," Lindsay replied, reaching out to place her hand affectionately on his arm.

"Well, I look forward to your call tomorrow. Have a great night you two." Russ opened the door and moved aside to let them pass.

Standing out in the hallway, they smiled at Russ. "You too. Goodnight."

"Bye."

With that, Russ shut the door and the couple headed for the elevators. Danny and Lindsay remained silent as they made their way down and out of the building and back to the truck. Danny used the remote to unlock the doors and he opened the passenger door for Lindsay, shutting it after her and running around the front of the vehicle to join her. He'd barely had a chance to shut his door before Lindsay had turned to him and started speaking quickly.

"Oh my God, did that really just happen? Did you see the amount of space in there, and for only $1500 a month? That's gotta set a record or something for being a complete and utter steal. Maybe there's a law that's being broken by that apartment being so cheap. If we moved in there, we could have more kids and not worry about needing to move again. It's a little farther from work, but the commute would still be pretty good. The opportunity for in-house laundry is a big plus…"

Lindsay would have continued on with the disjointed rambling, but Danny's hand was in the way, silencing her for the moment. Danny had covered her mouth to give his brain a chance to catch up in processing everything that she had just said, and there was one thing in particular that he needed to ask her about.

"I thought you said Lucy was supposed to be an only child?"

He wasn't completely sure that she even realized that that had come out of her mouth, so he didn't want to get his hopes up too much about having more children. Lindsay just stared at him, mild shock in her eyes, until she calmed down enough to nod her head as a way of asking him to move his hand.

"Let's just say that I'm open to negotiating about more kids, but not for at least another year."

Danny smiled and filed that information away for another time, getting back to the topic at hand. "So, I take it that you liked the place?"

Lindsay reached over and hit him on the arm. "You'd have to be crazy not to like the place. Please tell me that you liked it too." She glanced over at him, worried that she had fallen in love with a place that Danny didn't like.

"Don't worry, I love the place just as much as you do, I just think that we need to let it all sink in before we start talking like we already live there."

"I know, I'm just excited and it's an emotion that I'm more than happy to let overwhelm me at the moment."

"I know exactly what you mean," Danny said as he reached out for her hand and squeezed it before letting go again to start the truck for their journey back to Staten Island. This time they would be travelling with the flow of the rush hour traffic, but it was nice to just be the two of them in a confined space with little distractions and the chance to talk about what they had seen, but also what they'd learned about their boss.

"I'd only been at the lab for about 6 months before September 11th, so I didn't know Mac well enough to see how much Claire's death really affected him. He only took about two weeks off after it happened and then he was back at work and throwing himself into it, much like the rest of us were at that time. I talked to Aiden about it, as she'd been there for a year before me, and she'd seen the two of them together at the lab several times, and she told me how his face just lit up when she was around. I only met Claire once, when she popped her head into the lab I happened to be in at the time and asked if I'd seen Mac. She didn't introduce herself or nothing, but I'd seen her picture on his desk, so I told her where he was and she thanked me and left. Stella warned us all when he came back to try to not bring Claire up and that's what we did."

Lindsay nodded. "Even since I've been here, he's barely talked about Claire that I know of – I can only think of the time you told me about when you and he talked just before we got married."

"Yeah, and I remember Flack mentioning that Mac mentioned her to Hollis Eckhart when he was trying to convince him to not kill himself, but that's it. I never realized how much it meant to him that we made him Lucy's godfather, I guess we really made the right decision there."

Lindsay nodded again in agreement and then the two sat in silence for a while, waiting to get through a congested intersection. Danny was the first to break the silence.

"OK, let's talk about that apartment again, but let's both be cool about it, alright?"

"Sure, let's start with the location: I'd say it's maybe another ten minutes to the lab on the subway and I saw a station about a block away." Danny nodded his assent. "It reminded me a lot of our neighbourhood now, it's fairly quiet and there are a bunch of local shops within walking distance, so we wouldn't have to go very far if we run out of something. And like you told Russ, parking's not really an issue for us because we don't have a car and your bike can go in the apartment like it already does when you're not using it."

"Yeah. The appliances in the place are still in great condition, so the only thing we might want to get would be a washer and dryer, but since there's still laundry facilities in the basement, we wouldn't have to rush out for that. We could wait until we had some more money. We could use the furniture he's leaving behind too, because that living room is gonna need more seating than our couch and two chairs, and I don't want to keep the dining room table we have now – I can't look at it anymore. It was already in the apartment when I moved in, so I'm not gonna miss the thing. We can use the third bedroom as a multi-purpose room until we decide what to do with it, we can set up our computer desk in there and I can finally unbury my pool table from under all that stuff." When Lindsay moved in, she'd been torn about the pool table. She'd thought about asking him to get rid of it many times, especially with the baby coming and the fact that his motorcycle already took up a lot of space, but she just couldn't bear to get rid of the stupid thing because it held such a sentimental meaning to the both of them. Instead, it became a convenient place to stack/pile things that didn't have a proper place yet. Since then, it had been shoved in a corner between the kitchen and the dining room, long forgotten under all the junk.

Lindsay picked up where Danny had left off. "The bedrooms were all great sizes, and the 2½ baths were great for us. If we had people over, they could use the one off the kitchen instead of the only bathroom in the entire apartment – no more line-ups. Lucy could have her own bathroom and we'd be able to get ready in the morning without being on top of one another. It kinda sucks that there's no tub in the master bath, but I only take a bath every once in a while and as long as there's at least one tub in the place for Lucy, I don't really care that I have to go use another bathroom for my baths. I noticed that the shower was pretty big too."

Danny wasn't sure whether Lindsay had meant that comment to be innocent or not, but he decided to let that go for the moment. "The rent's more than reasonable, even if he was wanting us to pay $1500 right from the start."

The car went quiet again before Danny slapped his hands on the steering wheel, startling Lindsay a bit.

"We'd be stupid not to take the place, wouldn't we?"

Lindsay caught his eye and gave him a shy smile. "Yeah."

"OK, but I have one last thing to ask you: Forget about what we just saw for a minute. Are you sure that we need to move?" It really was a moot point for both of them by now, but Danny just had to make sure.

"Yes, we need to move."

"Alright, then I guess we're gonna take Russ up on his offer!" The excitement was now starting to rub off on Danny.

"This is crazy. We only just decided to move last night, and in less than 24 hours we've already got another place to live. Are we moving too fast Dan?" Now it was Lindsay's turn to play the sober second thought.

"How's about we talk to my parents about it? They haven't seen the place, so they won't get caught up in the looks of it. We'll play it cool with them and see what they think."

"It sounds like a plan to me."

Now decided on how to precede next, Danny and Lindsay spent the rest of the car ride in silence, each of them secretly thinking about a new place that they could make memories in, a place that they could truly make their own.

* * *

**OK, so I'm sure that most of you figured out that Mac's plan was gonna hook Danny and Lindsay up with another place to live, but maybe I surprised you with how awesome the new place is? Or not? Either way, I hope you liked it!**

**I'm really hoping to get this story finished before I get back into the swing of school again *stupid school, always taking away from my fanfic time*, so don't be surprised if my last 2 updates are quicker!**

**Until then, thanks for reading everybody!**


	14. Chapter 14

**This may seem like déjà vu, but before I tell you to enjoy this chapter, there are two things that you need to know about it:**

**1) It took on a mind of its own when I was writing it, particularly when I got to the ending.**

**2) The rating on this one is going up a lot, to probably a borderline (or possibly even a solid) 'M'. *I suck at ratings, by the way :P***

**Enjoy!**

* * *

After deciding to talk to Danny's parents before committing themselves to the apartment, it took close to a half hour before Danny parked the truck in his parent's driveway and he and Lindsay headed inside the house.

Hearing the door open, Maria Messer called out to them. "That took longer than I thought!"

"We got caught in traffic Ma!"

"Well, you're just in time for dinner!"

"You don't need to yell Ma, we can hear you fine over here!"

"Don't you yell at me, Daniel! Bring yourself and your beautiful wife in here already!"

Danny shook his head at his mother's antics, but obliged her anyways. Walking into the kitchen, Danny quickly noticed the layout of food on the table and the smiling faces of his parents and Lucy as he and Lindsay entered the room.

" 'Prise Mommy and Daddy!" Lucy screamed at the top of her lungs, finally allowed to let out all her excitement after Papa had told her it was a surprise for her parents. While Danny and Lindsay were gone, Maria kept herself busy with making a special dinner for everyone: lasagne with a salad and garlic bread to go along with it and for dessert, she'd gone out to the nearby bakery that Danny had loved as a child and got the cannolies, his favourite.

"What's all this for Ma?"

"It's nothing special really, it's just a regular family dinner. You guys have very demanding jobs, so you don't always have the chance to come out here for dinner on a regular basis. I wanted to do something nice to celebrate the fact that we're all still here and that we're all together."

Danny didn't know how to react to what had just been said, but thankfully Lindsay took over, stepping forward to hug Maria and kiss Carmine on the cheek. "Thank you, both of you. That's very sweet of you."

"Sit down and let's eat," Maria said in reply, ignoring the thanks for something that she didn't think was that big of a deal.

XXXXXXXXX

The Messer family was too busy eating to make small talk, but as soon as the dishes were finished, and everyone piled out into the living room, Maria took the opportunity to ask them about their little adventure. "What was that meeting with Mac's friend all about?"

"It looks like we found a new place to live in!" Danny blurted out.

Lindsay gave him a sideways glance. "I thought we agreed on playing it cool Messer. Nice one." Despite her words, Lindsay's face broke out into a wide grin, relieved that she didn't have to downplay her excitement about the apartment.

"What? Already? What's so special about this place that the two of you have already moved in your heads?" Maria asked, shocked by what she'd just been told.

Danny took the lead in describing the place for his parents, with Lindsay interjecting every once in a while to supply further detail. They shared not only the physical layout of the apartment, but also details about Russ, his connection to Mac, what Russ had told them about Mac, and the great deal they could get on it. By the end of the description, even Carmine, who'd never cared a thing about real estate, seemed excited for Danny and his girls. "All that and you didn't say yes on the spot?" Carmine asked.

"We had to talk about it first, Pop. It would've been crazy to accept right away, too rushed. But don't worry, after sleeping on the decision tonight, I'm pretty sure that we're gonna call him in the morning and tell him we want the apartment."

"You better, because if you don't, I'm taking it!" Maria said, completely serious. Everybody started to laugh, and Lindsay took a moment to check up on Lucy, who they'd left on the floor nearby to play.

"Speaking of sleeping…" Lindsay interjected, pointing over at Lucy, who'd fallen asleep sitting up. She went over and picked her daughter up, a little surprised that the movement didn't wake her.

"I gave her a bath just before you got back because she got pretty messy trying to help me with dinner," Maria informed Lindsay.

"Thanks. I'll just go change her into her pyjamas and put her to bed, I shouldn't be too long."

"You want some help babe?"

"No, I'm good Dan," Lindsay said, smiling sweetly at her husband before heading upstairs, Danny watching their retreating forms the entire way. His attention was brought back to the living room when his mother placed a hand on his knee.

"This will be good for you all. It's happening really fast, yes, but that's not always a bad thing, is it?" Maria gestured towards the ceiling, and he quickly understood that she was referring to how quickly he and Lindsay had gone from flirting to dating to nearly breaking up to being married and raising their daughter.

"No," he stated with completely sincerity.

She smiled brightly before patting his knee and looking over at Carmine, the two of them standing up together.

"Where 'ya going?"

"It's poker night with the boys while the ladies sit around and gab. I've got so much to tell the ladies about Lucy!"

"I thought that was Wednesday nights?"

"It got moved to Mondays about 3 months ago. We should be back before 11pm, but don't wait up for us. You two just have a relaxing evening, you've more than earned it. If you can't think of anything else to do, you could start to think about how to decorate your new apartment. I think the third bedroom would look great in either blue or pink." With one quick peck on Danny's cheek, Maria followed Carmine out of the house to the car. Danny heard the car start up and leave the driveway, but he was frozen on the couch, still in shock. Maybe he'd not been imagining things when he and Lindsay first arrived because apparently, his mother was itching for another grandchild, and she wasn't concerned whether she was being subtle about it or not.

Lindsay reappeared at his side, looking confused as to where her in-laws had disappeared to. "Did I just hear your parents' car leave?"

Shaking his head to clear his mind, he turned to Lindsay and responded. "Yeah, it's poker night and gab night. They should be back by 11pm, but we're not to wait up for them."

"Alright, so what do you suggest we do for the evening?"

"My mother suggested that we think of ideas for decorating the new apartment. She even had an idea for what to do with the third bedroom: she'd like to see it painted either pink or blue." Danny watched as Lindsay's jaw dropped and remained that way – he couldn't help but think that she looked absolutely adorable at the moment.

"What is it with you Messers and having babies on the brain? Lucy's not even two yet!"

"I know babe, she's just teasing, or at least I hope she is. My mother already has more that she ever expected from either of her sons: married to the mother of her grandchild and not just some dead beat dad with kids all over the city that she never gets to see."

"Danny! Your mom doesn't think that about you, nor do I think she thought that way about Louis." Lindsay scoffed, surprised that Danny believed his mother to have such low expectations for her children.

"OK, so maybe it's an exaggeration, but I know my mom was always worried that Louis and I would never grow up and settle down. Then, when Louis was gone and I was still single with one long-shot of a prospect," he paused and looked over at Lindsay before continuing, noticing that she had started to blush, "I think she seriously thought grandchildren were not in her future. She loves Lucy like crazy and so does my dad and I know they'd be happy with just her, but I guess she's just hoping for more little ones to spoil and dote on."

"And like I said, I'm open for the discussion of more kids, just not until Lucy is at least two."

"Linds, don't worry about it. I'm not going to pressure you into having more kids if you seriously don't want to go through the nine-month pregnancy and delivery again. I meant it when I said I'm happy with one or twenty, or anywhere in between there, just so long as it's you and me doing it together. You wanna wait until after Lucy turns two, that's fine with me. It gives me more than enough time to come up with a plan that will convince you that we should have more kids. Maybe I'll try and come up with an image for our next child that you can't possibly ignore." He finished his statement by suggestively wiggling his eyebrows at her, causing her to break out in a smile.

To tell the truth, Lindsay had already changed her mind about having more kids after the first month with Lucy. Despite the lack of sleep and the constant attention required by an infant, Lindsay couldn't imagine herself with only one child. Even while Danny was stuck in the wheelchair and there'd been a big chance that he'd never walk again, Lindsay still believed that they could make it work with another child. She wasn't kidding about wanting to wait until Lucy was a bit older, but she thought that in the meantime, she could have at least a little fun while Danny tried to 'convince' her. "Alright, let's hear what you can come up with on the spot."

Danny smirked at her, not one to back down from a challenge. "Well, this may not be my A-game, but I'll give it a try. I think that if we were to have another child, I'd like it to be another little girl. Lucy's got my eyes and hair colour, but your smile and nose, so next time, I think our baby girl should have your beautiful eyes and wavy dark hair, my nose, but still your amazing smile. I'd be screwed for the rest of my life because I'd be living with three women who with one little smile could have me doing anything, including being nice to potential boyfriends and allowing them to go on dates before the age of 45, but those smiles everyday would be enough for me – between that and the love of my girls, I'd be set for life."

Two things ran through Lindsay's mind when he finished speaking: 1) the image of a little girl just as he described, and 2) the thought that if he could come up with that image on the spot, she wasn't sure _she_ could wait until after Lucy was two anymore.

Danny stared at his wife, who sat in silence for some time, a look of shock plastered on her face. "What babe?" he asked, trying to figure out what was going on in her head.

"I, uhh…I just thought you would go with a boy, given how adamant you were that Lucy was a boy." That was only a half-lie that Lindsay had told; Danny didn't need to know at the moment that she'd often thought of a little boy running after Lucy while she and Danny looked on and laughed.

"Alright, then, I pose the same hypothetical to you. Let's say we had another baby and it was a boy. Off the top of your head, what would he look like?"

"He'd have wavy light brown hair, a perfect mix between my hair colour and yours, your eyes that I tend to get lost in, your nose and ears and that cheeky little grin of yours that you flash me all the time just because." Lindsay said very casually, not even needing to think about it.

Lindsay was lost in her own world, staring off and thinking about the little boy she'd seen so many times in her dreams. So caught up was she that she didn't notice Danny gawking at her, his eyes as wide as saucers. For the second time in the past six hours, Lindsay had mentioned about having more kids with him and based on the description she just given and her current state, her answer had been just as spontaneous as his had been: _not at all_. He'd seen the little girl he'd described many times in his dreams, always dancing around with Lucy until he and Lindsay joined in on their fun.

Danny's face broke out into a shit-eating grin, realizing that more kids were _definitely_ in the cards for him and Lindsay. He realized quickly that Lindsay could break out of her daydream at any time, and not wanting her to realize that he knew her secret just yet, he schooled his features to look as though he was casually considering her image.

"Not bad, babe. It sounds to me like we'll have some things to talk about in about a year's time." Lindsay looked over at Danny as though she was a deer caught in headlights, but he ignored the look and pressed forward. "I'm gonna go grab a drink. Can I get you anything?"

"Just a little orange juice please." Lindsay cursed her voice for shaking so much while she tried to play it cool.

Danny turned and kissed her temple before getting up and disappearing into the kitchen, not really needing the drink but recognizing that Lindsay needed some time to collect her composure.

The minute Danny was out of sight, Lindsay started to panic, going over what had just happened in her mind. She'd described the little boy from her dreams and kinda blanked out after that, caught up in his image, until Danny spoke up. She had panicked when she heard his voice, and she knew her panic had registered on her face. Danny should've seen it, but he hadn't reacted to it, so either he completely missed it or he was playing dumb. The problem was, Lindsay honestly had no idea which it was. Danny had certainly gotten better at being able to read her face and figure out what was going on, but he still missed a lot. On the other hand, he'd been known to stay silent about things he'd picked up from her and bring them up later with her, catching her completely off-guard. Hearing Danny come back over towards her, she decided to let the matter go for now and maybe try and figure out just how much he knew later on. Tonight, she just wanted to focus on being with her husband in place that she felt completely safe and not on display.

She watched as he sat out two coasters for them and put their drinks down, sitting down beside her and putting his arm around her to pull her into his side.

"How do you think we should decorate the new place?" Lindsay asked, thinking that aside from Maria's obvious preference for one particular room, it seemed as good a time as any to brainstorm about décor, especially if they would be moving in less than a month's time and would be juggling the move, work and Lucy all at the same time.

"Well, it's not ours yet, so I don't want to jump the gun here, but I'll let you take the lead there, so long as you let me know what you're doing so I can have at least some idea of the environment that I'll be living in before I'm stuck in it permanently."

"So pretty much the same deal as we had when I re-decorated parts of your apartment to make it ours?"

"Yep. I'm pretty easy when it comes to all that stuff – I'm fine with whatever you want so long as it doesn't make me want to puke every time I see it."

Lindsay chuckled a little, but turned serious again very quickly as another question came to mind. "Should we decorate Lucy's room the same as it is now?"

Danny let out a heavy sigh, having thought about it himself not that long ago. "I honestly don't know. I guess it would make the move easier on her if her room looked the same as it does now, but at the same time, I'm not sure if I could look at the little daisies without seeing imaginary blood splatter or something."

"Yeah, you're right. I guess we'll just have to try one way and see what happens. I just hope the super will be OK with us moving out on such short notice."

"Well, there's still three weeks before the end of the month and our lease is month to month now. With us moving out, he'll finally be able to raise the rent and make some more money on that place. It'll be snatched up quick, don't doubt that for a second." Lindsay smiled at Danny's confidence, believing every word he said.

They sat in silence for a while before Danny piped up with something he hoped his wife wouldn't take the wrong way. "I hate to admit it, but I'm kinda looking forward to going back to work. Don't get me wrong, I've loved being able to spend all this time with you while we're not processing a scene or evidence at the same time, being able to spend time just as Danny and Lindsay and not as the Detectives Messer, and of course I've loved spending all day with Lucy, but compared to the vacation that we had planned, and then what's happened this past week, I kinda want to forget a lot of this week."

"Yeah…" Danny thought that Lindsay had more to say, and as he waited for her to continue, instead he heard her breathing start to become ragged. Looking down, he saw the first tears spill down her cheeks. "Why does this stuff keep happening to us Danny? Every time we get even close to a really great time in our lives, something happens to screw it all up. I'm so sick of it! I just want to live a normal boring life like everyone else, where I go to work and come home to my family each night and nothing crazy happens. I know that since we're both cops, it will never be that routine and uneventful, but c'mon, hostage situations with Irish gangs, kids getting shot for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, idiots going on shooting sprees for money and just happening to hit a bar full of cops, and psychotic serial killers with twisted reasons for vengeance? They never mentioned any of that shit in the academy!"

He tightened his grip on her and listened as her tears continued to fall and her breathing became more laboured by hiccups. Danny had been thinking the same thing off and on this past week, but he knew that neither of them would want to give up on their work just like that. As she continued to cry, Danny rubbed his hand up and down her arm and tried to ease her anger and frustration some.

"No, they never mentioned about any of that, but they never told us this job would be easy either. Nobody ever said how hard it would be to tell a parent that their child is dead, or to tell someone that the love of their life is gone forever. They never said what it would be like to see the bodies of kids whose lives were cut way too short or the bodies of women attacked and defiled in everyway possible by monsters. They didn't talk about the scum we'd come across every once in a while, the kind of people that make your skin crawl by just being near them. But you know what else they never taught is at the academy? The appreciation from the next of kin for what we do and how hard we work to catch the perps, and the relief you can see in their eyes when you tell them that you've apprehended those responsible; that because you deal with death so much, life becomes all the more precious to you; and the satisfaction of knowing that you put dangerous people behind bars and protect others from getting hurt."

"Sometimes I'm not sure if that's enough though," Lindsay interjected, wanting to believe Danny so badly but having a hard time of it given the circumstances. Danny sensed how torn his wife was, so he decided to try another approach.

"I feel that way too sometimes, like I end up sacrificing more of myself to the job than I ever get back from it. I have to remind myself that that's not the be-all and end-all in life, getting more in return than what I put out. Then I remember that at the academy, they never teach you about how close you'll become with the people you work with, that the death of one of your own will feel like a part of you has died with them, but it's more than that too: you become family, you take care of each other, you help each other out anyway that you can. They never told me that I'd find a second father in Mac or the older sister I never had in Stella and Aiden too, or a brother in Flack, or great friends in Hawkes, Adam, and even Sid with his creepy stories.

"But most of all, the academy never told me that one day I'd be processing a scene at the zoo, minding my own business over at the tiger cage, when some woman would come over to me and introduce herself as Lindsay Monroe and start to steal my heart from the minute she opened her mouth. Nobody ever warned me that I'd find the love of my life while at work and that I'd end up going crazy when she pushed me away and left the city to go deal with her past. Nobody ever said that I would end up flying halfway across the country on a whim because I thought she needed me to help her get through some rough stuff. Nobody ever said that I'd eventually get to be in a relationship with her and that because of her I'd want to be a better man, a man who she could be proud of and who she'd want to marry and have children with one day. I was never told that that could or would be a reality one day, that I would marry the girl who stole my heart years ago and that I would be the father of a beautiful little girl. Nobody ever told me any of this, and if they had, I probably never would've believed them anyways. I guess my point is that there are just some things that you need to learn on your own, and even though the job is hard sometimes, I think at the end of the day, there are better rewards than I ever imagined."

Lindsay was taken aback by Danny's impromptu speech, but she could tell that he'd meant every single word from the heart. "Well when you put it like that, there's no disputing it, now it there?" She smiled up at him through her tears and placed a chaste kiss to his lips.

With that one simple gesture, though, something was awakened within Danny. As she started to pull away from him, a wave of desire radiated out from the pit of his stomach and spread throughout his entire body. He lifted Lindsay's chin and re-captured her lips, and after the initial shock wore off, she responded by turning her body more towards him, shifting herself up onto her knees to better reach his mouth. Her moving gave Danny the perfect opportunity to use his greater strength to gently push her backwards until she was lying flat on the couch and he was perched above her, lowering himself onto her until every part of him was pressed to her and Lindsay could feel his growing erection pressing into her stomach.

Pulling up for a moment, Danny waited until Lindsay opened her eyes to see why his lips were no longer on hers and with her full attention he spoke. "I just want you to know that this has nothing to do with the fact that I am now certain that you and I both want more kids," he paused to let that sink in with her and to give her a cheeky grin, "because we're gonna wait until Lucy is two and everything else in our lives has settled down. This is about me wanting, no needing you, right now."

Lindsay had wanted to say so many things to Danny in that moment, but she didn't have a chance to as he lowered himself back on top of her and his lips attacked hers, seemingly trying to devour her on the spot. She quickly forgot about anything she wanted to say and started to pull him down even further on top of her, shoving her hands under the back of his shirt and raking her nails up and down his back, eliciting a low moan from him. Danny responded in kind by sneaking one hand up the front of her shirt and groping her breasts through her bra, causing Lindsay to arch up into him.

For some reason, an coherent thought came to Lindsay's lust-filled mind, and it caused her to stop what she was doing and push Danny up a bit, making him pout from the loss of contact. "Dan…your parents…" She managed to choke out between pants.

"I don't care, let them find us." He really wasn't interesting in stopping at the moment, so he wouldn't have cared his entire extended family walked in on them.

"We're not getting caught by your parents on their couch! We're going upstairs, we're going to ravish each other until neither of us can move and then we're gonna collapse from the exertion and fall asleep in each other's arms."

Danny had been expecting her to say that she wouldn't feel right having sex with him in his parent's house, so when he processed what she actually said, it took a great amount of self-control on his part to not jump her again. He pushed himself up off her and took one of her hands to pull her up with him. Before he could change his grip so he could lead her up to his old bedroom, she ran off for the stairs, stopping on the second one up and beckoning him to join her with her finger, a wicked grin on her face. He hurried over and stopped at the foot of the stairs, trying to figure out what she was doing. She leaned forward and attached her lips to his, using the height difference to control the kiss, something that she didn't often get to do. Just as Danny started to grab for her to pull her into his body, she pulled back and ran up the stairs, giggling as she took them two at a time and disappeared into Danny's room.

His surprise at her antics quickly wore off and he chased after her, finding her sat on the end of his bed looking completely innocent. He closed the door quietly behind him before pouncing at her, knocking her back on the bed and gluing his lips back to hers, the one place that they truly belonged.

"You're gonna be the death of me one of these days, you know that?" He mumbled against her lips. When the words echoed back to him in his ears, he quickly realized his mistake. He pulled up again and saw that Lindsay had started to tear up and he felt horrible for killing the mood between them. Danny got up from the bed and crossed the room, beginning to pace as he tried to explain. "It's just an expression, Linds, but given what's happened lately, it was a horrible choice of words, I'm sorry."

He stopped pacing and looked over at her, watching as she stood up and walked right over to him, reaching out and starting to unbutton his shirt with haste. She looked up at him and he could see that he'd been wrong – somehow, his unfortunate choice of words had only seemed to refuel Lindsay's desire for him. She pushed the shirt off his shoulders and pulled the wife beater over his head before leaning up and whispering in his ear.

"Yes I will, but not for a very, _very_ long time."

As she pulled back, she nipped at his earlobe before sealing her mouth to his. As their mouths duelled for dominance, Lindsay started undoing the buttons of her blouse, sensing that Danny would soon be in a frenzy and would likely rip one of her favourite shirts in his haste to get her naked. Satisfied that all the buttons were undone, Lindsay upped the ante by pushing the lower half of her body forward until it was flush with his and she started rocking back and forth, brushing against the front of his pants.

Another wave of desire crashed down on Danny and he pushed himself away from Lindsay to claw at her clothes. He pushed the already undone blouse off her shoulders and ripped the button of her jeans open, shoving the zipper down before pushing his hand into her pants to see how ready she was for him, earning himself a deep moan from her as he brushed over her sensitive skin. Satisfied with his findings, he forced her underwear and pants down her legs in one fell swoop and moved his hands to the back of her bra, keeping his mouth occupied on her neck. Lindsay's hands darted out for his waistband and she quickly had his pants undone and halfway down his legs before he pulled her hands back and dragged her bra down her arms, letting it fall to the floor.

They both stepped out of their pants as Danny started to walk them back towards the bed. Lindsay collapsed on it as soon as her knees hit the edge and Danny fell down with her, not wanting to break their connection. He took his weight on his arms to allow her to move back towards the top of the bed, moving with her as best as he could until she stopped and he could align their bodies once more. He gave her no warning as he ploughed into her and started moving at a steady, forceful pace. In the back of her mind, Lindsay knew that they both would be bruised and sore in the morning, but she really didn't care. Instead, her hands started to claw at his back as they had done earlier on, while his mouth left hers and attached itself to one of her breasts, taking one free hand to tease the other. Lindsay was already starting to writhe under him when his pace increased and his mouth and hand switched places. She started matching him thrust for thrust and his pace increased even further.

Lindsay was so close to her release when Danny's lips found hers again and his hand disappeared down further between their bodies. A few swipes of his fingers over the sensitive flesh and Lindsay came undone beneath him. Danny's thrusts became more erratic and with the help of Lindsay's inner walls pulsating around him, he couldn't hold on any longer and he reached his own climax and then collapsed on top of her.

They stayed in the same positions for several minutes, Lindsay tightening her grip on him as they struggled to breathe. Danny used the last bit of energy he had to roll off Lindsay and land on his back. She quickly followed him, moulding her body to his side on the small bed and pulled up the sheet to cover them both. He leaned down to place a sweet kiss to her lips before they both gave into their exhaustion and fell asleep.

* * *

**If only all of you could see me know: I'm currently blushing from head to toe, more than a little surprised that the end came from my brain! I don't have any problems reading these types of scenes, but writing it, well that's just a whole other matter. Nevertheless, I certainly hope my discomfort didn't come across while you were reading it!**

**OK, so the next chapter will be the last for this little fic, I hope you'll all be back and will be satisfied with the ending! *crosses fingers***

**Thank you for reading, as always! Bye! *waves***


	15. Chapter 15

**Here we are folks, the last chapter of **_**Weathering the Storm**_**! *tear* I'm kinda torn right now as to whether I'm sad that this story is now completely posted as it's been my baby for the past three months and I don't want to let it go **_**just**_** yet or whether I'm glad to see it go so I can work on some other ideas! I guess it's really a bit of both at the end of the day! *hehe***

**OK, I think I've gone over this a couple of times in other stories (so sorry for the repetition), but I originally started writing my own stories so the ideas would stop floating around in my head and so I could just read them myself. Along the way, I eventually built up enough courage to post on this site, but I never in my wildest dreams could've imagined that, now a year into this venture, I'd be writing stories that people genuinely vested interest in, and ones that people would tell me that they'd be sad to see completed. This had been a crazy ride for me, and I thank you all for coming along and joining in! This story would not have been the same without all of you, who pushed me to make this into a better story than what it was at first. Thank you for that.**

**Now, onto something I haven't done in a while: thank you to everybody out there who's read this story, in part or in full, whether you love it or think it's the worst thing ever created - the fact that you even gave it a try means a whole heck of a lot to me! And to those of you who reviewed, I send a great big hug out to each and every one of you for taking that time to send me your thoughts, whether they were a single sentence or a series of novels. So, to: ****rapidtetv, Rogue903, Storywriter, Linoria, laurzz, uscrocks, rhymenocerous, Lindsay1234, kdzl, webdlfan, csimesser1, ioanhoratio, CaitlinTierney, afrozenheart412, BeforeItsTooLate, xxlil-mizz-hannahxx, Dine89, and cklovesm-m –** **Thank you and y****ou all just rock!**

**I'm gonna shut up now and ask you to please enjoy the final chapter of **_**Weathering the Storm**_**!**

* * *

Lindsay was the first to wake up the next morning and as her eyes fluttered open, she could see the light shining in from the bedroom window and she guessed that it was the middle of the morning. She closed her eyes again and strained to hear anything sound coming from the rest of the house, but all she heard was Danny snoring right next to her ear. She started to shift out of his arms in order to go investigate, but Danny only started grumbling and he tightened his arms around her.

"Stop movin', I'm tryin' to sleep," he mumbled out, his accent thickened due to his semi-conscious state.

"Danny, it's mid-morning and I don't hear anything in the rest of the house."

"My parent's got Lucy, she's fine." He started nuzzling her neck in an effort to coax her back to sleep.

"Danny…" she cautioned him, knowing exactly what he was up to.

"Hey, you only have yourself to blame. I wasn't the one who woke you up in the middle of the night. I'm exhausted and it's all because of you." Danny was more awake now, knowing that they did have to get up, but that didn't stop him from teasing her.

He'd been asleep when he started to feel Lindsay's lips place soft and sweet kisses to his jawline, neck and upper torso. At first, he was sure that it was part of a dream, but he was abruptly brought to wakefulness by the feeling of Lindsay's hand close around him and the slow strokes that were quickly bringing him to life. His eyes flew open and locked on her, quickly noting that it was probably the middle of the night so his parents were definitely back. He wanted to start protesting, but all thoughts of that nature flew out the window when she sealed their lips together and proceeded to speed up her teasing. The last thoughts Danny sparred for his parents were that he was happy that their room was at the end of the hall, at least some distance away from where he and Lindsay were, and then he started to tease her back in kind.

"Don't make it sound like you were a complete innocent, Dan," she retorted back, pointing to the deep set of teeth marks on her shoulder, marks that he'd made while trying to muffle his climax, marks that in all fairness had a matching set on his shoulder, to go along with the deep treads of scratchmarks running all over his back. Danny thought that he'd won the argument, so he pulled her down once more, sweetly kissed the mark he'd left on her, and closed his eyes.

"Will you at least let me up to go get a shirt or something? Your body heat is great and all, but I'm still freezing here." Danny shook his head back and forth and held her closer, but Lindsay countered by peppering his lips with little kisses until he opened his eyes again and saw the puppy-dog expression on her face. With a huff, he released her fully from his grasp and she placed one last kiss on his lips before jumping off the bed. He shifted to his side and watched as she threw his button down on and did up about three buttons to keep it somewhat closed. She picked up his boxers and was about to re-join him on the bed when something else caught her eye on the floor. She bent over and picked up the folded piece of paper and returned to the bed, lying down on her back so that Danny could snuggle into her side.

"What's that?"

"I don't know." Opening the piece of paper, Lindsay began to read aloud from it.

_Kids,_

_I knocked on your door this morning but nobody moved. I didn't bother to check up on you because I guessed that you were tired from your long day yesterday and needed the extra rest. I'm leaving you two some breakfast in the fridge, and Dad and I are taking Lucy with us on some errands. After that, we'll take her to the park and we'll probably stay until about noon. Come over and find us when you're done._

_Love Mom XOXO_

Danny felt a slight blush creeping up his body, knowing that his mom knew exactly why they weren't answering the door.

"OK, we're definitely getting up now. We've got a couple of calls to make this morning and I'd like to get to spend some time with Lucy and your parents at the park. I'm gonna go hop in the shower – alone – while you go call Martin the super and tell him that we're moving out at the end of the month." Before Danny could even begin to formulate a protest, she'd gotten back off the bed and disappeared out of the room, taking his shirt with her. Rubbing his hands over his face to make sure he was fully awake, Danny pulled his boxers on, grabbed his wife beater off the floor, took his phone out of his jeans pocket and headed downstairs.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Twenty minutes later, Lindsay came down the stairs, showered and dressed, to the smell of fresh pancakes, apparently what Maria had left for them. She walked into the kitchen just as Danny was pouring the last of the batter into the pan and she went over to the sink to at least start on some of the dishes.

"How'd Martin take the news?"

"Well, he said he was sorry to see us go, but after what happened to us in that building, he didn't expect us to be staying much longer anyways."

Lindsay nodded as she rinsed off the bowl from the batter and placed it in the dish drainer. Seeing that the pancakes were nearly done, she dried her hands and sat down at the table, waiting for Danny to join her with their food.

They ate quickly and in silence, and after shooing Danny upstairs to go take a shower and get dressed, Lindsay finished the rest of the dishes and moved out into the living room to wait for him to return, her cell phone and Russ's business card clenched in her hand. When he finally joined her once again, he lifted her chin to bring them eye to eye and asked "Are we still doing this?"

Without any kind of hesitation, she replied "Yes" and started dialling the number for Russ's office. The phone rang a couple of times and as Lindsay waited on baited breath, she reached out for Danny's hand and interlaced their fingers.

"Thank you for calling Carter and Evans, Attorneys at Law. My name is Samantha, how may I direct your call?"

"Hello my name is Lindsay Messer and I'd like to speak with Mr. Evans, he's expecting my call."

"Of course, Mrs. Messer, Mr. Evans told me to put your call directly though to him. Please wait just one moment while I transfer your call." The line went silent for a few seconds, but then Russ's voice came over the line.

"Lindsay, how are you doing this morning?"

"I'm fine, thank you. I've got Danny here beside me, so do you mind if I put you on speaker?"

"Not at all." Lindsay pulled the phone from her ear and pressed a button onscreen, bringing the phone between them.

"Good morning Russ."

"Hi Danny. I take it you and Lindsay had a lot to discuss last night. I'm assuming that you've made your decision already though, if you're calling me back so soon?"

Danny and Lindsay shared a look, trying to figure out who would break the news, and Danny used his free hand to gesture for her to go ahead.

"Yes we have Russ, and we're happy to say that we'll take it!"

"That's wonderful! Do you still want the terms that we discussed yesterday with the furniture and everything?"

"Yes, just like we talked about yesterday."

"Great! I'll have the rental agreement drawn up by my buddy and I'll get in touch with you when it's ready for your signatures. Do you have a number where I can reach you at?" Lindsay gave him both her and Danny's cell phone numbers, informing him to leave a message if he didn't get them directly and they'd reply as soon as possible. "Terrific! Well, my secretary's telling me that I have a client I need to go deal with, so I'm going to have to let you go, but congratulations on your new place and I look forward to getting to know you better. Take care."

"Bye Russ," they said in unison.

"Bye guys."

Lindsay ended the call and put her phone away before grabbing Danny and hugging him fiercely. "I'm really excited!"

"Me too. It's a clean slate for us." In reaction to his words, Lindsay pulled back from him and stared him straight in the eye before nodding ever so slightly, her way of letting him know that she understood the multiple meanings behind his choice of words. She leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss to his lips before ending it and placing her forehead against his.

"It's only 11:24am. Let's go find Lucy and your parent at the park. We can figure out everything else later, I just want to spend the last hours of our vacation together as a family with nothing else looming over our heads."

Danny's reply was to place another quick kiss to her lips before standing and offering her his hand. She took it and he pulled her up, changing his grip to once again interlock their fingers as he led them towards the door.

Lindsay was right – everything else that was going on in their lives at the moment could wait, it was time to focus on their family and just their family for a little while. As Danny and Lindsay left his childhood home hand in hand, they both realized that they'd survived their vacation week from hell and would be returning to work tomorrow hopeful for their future once more, and even though it was the result of many factors, the most important one was evident in the simplest of gestures: the holding of hands. They both knew that being together and relying on each other was the main reason for them still being around and they both relished that fact. It was a lesson that had not come easily for either of them, but one that they would never doubt for the rest of their lives:

Together, Danny and Lindsay could weather any storm.

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**OK, so remember how I said right at the beginning that this was the last chapter? That **_**may not**_** necessarily be the case…**

**You see, after finishing this chapter, I felt like there was a bit more story to tell here, and the idea for an epilogue popped into my head. I'm just wondering if you guys would like to see it or not – I'll warn you right now, it's just a collection of notes at the moment, so I'm not sure how quickly I can get it finished (*stupid school*), but if you guys want to see it, then I'll put it up. If not, then that's OK too and this story will end right here. So, which option do you think I should go with?**

**Oh, and just as an extra piece of information, regardless of your preferences, I have a couple of ideas for new stories (oneshots and short chapter fics) that will reference back to things seen in this one – characters, places, conversations (*cough **_**more babies**_** cough*) – so in little ways, this story will kinda continue on!**

**Alright, I've talked enough now between these two A/Ns, so I'll take my leave and wish you all wonderful insert-time-of-days! Take care everybody and thanks for reading! **


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